ESRI Shapefile for EU-25 NUTS-1 and NUTS-2

Dear All,

I am looking for *.shp files for the whole EU covering NUTS-1 and
NUTS-2 level. There have been older posts about that, but these links
are already outdated. I assume that those files should  be available
at the Eurostat homepage. But I have rarely seen such an intelligible
web site (I even failed to register as a user to get access to the
support section).

Something like:

http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/portal/page/portal/region_cities/introduction

-> See also (upper right) GISCO

-> Geodata (left navbar) -> Reference

-> click on Administrative units/Statistical units top left in main pane

or directly:

http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/portal/page/portal/gisco/popups/references/Administrative units and Statistical units1

though you are right, it isn't easy to find. The 2003 offerings are only 
in personal geodatabase format, the 2006 in both shapefile and personal 
geodatabase format.

I assume that such files should be easily and freely available. If I
am wrong, please correct me. If I am right, please send me a link.

You are wrong, but the link is there. Note the conditions. There is a 
loooooong running campaign to convince European public mapping agencies to 
free their data, with little effect so far. Nationally, the statistics 
agencies are better at releasing boundary files than the mapping agencies. 
Your assumption is rational, but things take time.

Hope this helps,

Roger

Thanks for any suggestions!
Best,
Stefan

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Roger Bivand
Economic Geography Section, Department of Economics, Norwegian School of
Economics and Business Administration, Helleveien 30, N-5045 Bergen,
Norway. voice: +47 55 95 93 55; fax +47 55 95 95 43
e-mail: Roger.Bivand at nhh.no