Statistical Integration of Ukraine into the EU: NUTS and the constitutional logic of territorial structure

The article examines the process of Ukraine’s statistical integration into the European Union through the interaction of three systems of territorial classification: the European Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics (NUTS), the national statistical classification NUTS-UA, and the administrative Codifier of Administrative-Territorial Units and Territories of Territorial Communities (KATOTTG). The study focuses on the compatibility of the EU’s statistical architecture with the constitutionally defined model of Ukraine’s territorial structure, based on the hierarchy “oblast (region) → raion (district) → territorial community (hromada).” It is substantiated that this issue concerns not only the technical harmonization of classifications, but also the formation of Ukraine’s institutional compatibility with the European statistical space, which is essential for participation in the mechanisms of EU regional and cohesion policy. The article demonstrates that potential inconsistencies between these systems are not normative or constitutional in nature, but primarily technical and methodological. They stem from differences in the logic of level formation, population threshold criteria within the NUTS system, the absence of officially assigned NUTS codes for Ukraine, and the impact of wartime conditions on the completeness, stability, and comparability of statistical data. It is established that NUTS and LAU function as purely statistical instruments of the European Union, designed to ensure data comparability, regional analysis, and access to cohesion policy mechanisms, whereas KATOTTG serves as an internal administrative registry and a key tool for correlating territorial units. Particular attention is given to the possibilities of synthesizing these systems without violating the sovereign constitutional logic of territorial governance in Ukraine. The analysis shows that the oblast is the most natural candidate for the NUTS 2 level, while the territorial community corresponds to the LAU level, ensuring stable identification and data openness. It is concluded that Ukraine’s statistical integration into the EU is not a secondary technical process, but an essential prerequisite for participation in the instruments of European regional policy. The synchronization of NUTS, NUTS-UA, and KATOTTG constitutes a key direction of the candidate state’s adaptation to EU standards and simultaneously serves as a mechanism for enhancing the quality of public statistics and administrative capacity.