The territory of each Member State (MS) is divided into regions under the Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics (NUTS) classification. It is a geographical nomenclature for collection and harmonisation of statistics and for socio-economic analysis.
There are three NUTS levels; the first one, major socio-economic regions, the second one basic regions for the application of regional policies and the third one small regions for specific diagnoses.
NUTS 2 has 271 regions: Belgium (11), Bulgaria (6), the Czech Republic (8), Denmark (5), Germany (39), Ireland (2), Greece (13), Spain (19), France (26), Italy (21), Hungary (7), the Netherlands (12), Austria (9), Poland (16), Portugal (7), Romania (8), Slovenia (2), Slovakia (4), Finland (5), Sweden (8) and the UK (37). Estonia, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg and Malta are all considered as single regions.
This paper takes into consideration NUTS 2 level because regions eligible for aid from Structural Funds are selected on the basis of this classification.
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