[R-sig-Geo] ESRI Shapefile for EU-25 NUTS-1 and NUTS-2

[stefan.duke at gmail.com]

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are already outdated.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).

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.

Thanks for any suggestions!
Best,
Stefan