This dataset shows pan-European administrative boundaries down to commune level version 2013. Communes are equivalent to Local Administrative Units, level 2 (LAU2), LAU2 for Greece (EL) are subject to confirmation. The Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics (NUTS) and the LAU nomenclature are hierarchical classifications of statistical regions that together subdivide the EU economic territory into regions of five different levels (NUTS 1, 2 and 3 and LAU 1, 2, respectively, moving from larger to smaller territorial units). The NUTS classification has been officially established through Regulation (EC) No 1059/2003 of the European Parliament and of the Council and amendments. A non official NUTS-like classification has been defined for the non-EU countries. The LAU classification is not covered by any legislative act. An introduction to the NUTS classification is available here: http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/nuts/overview.

The data set is based on EuroBoundaryMap v. 8.x from Eurogeographics. Geographical extent covers the EU28, EFTA countries, and candidate countries. The scale of the data set is 1:100 000.

This metadata only refers to the 1:100k version of this dataset and shall only be used internally by the EEA following the conditions stated in the document "GISCO-LicenseconditionsforEGdatasets.pdf" provided with the dataset. This metadata has been slightly adapted from the original metadata file provided by Eurostat (European Commission) and is to be used only for internal EEA purposes. For reference, the original metadata file provided by ESTAT (COMM_2013.xml) is provided together with the dataset.

A generalised version of this dataset at 1:1Mio is available for download on http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/gisco/geodata/reference-data/administrative-units-statistical-units/communes#communes13. Note the generalised version should be used for cartographic purposes .