Local Initiatives of Sustainable Development Stimulation. Case Study

Abstract

In the recent years, the local authorities within the EU are facing a series of socio-economic and political challenges which they must adequately manage such as to ensure the increase of the quality of life of the citizens they represent: adaptation to the common market, reduction of the exclusion degree, as well as of social and territorial inequity, adaptation to the pace and innovations brought by the new technologies or, recently, the increase of the number of immigrants with respect to whom the local authorities are responsible to identify integration solutions. In this context, the local authorities have a key-role on the path of ensuring sustainable development, by means of local initiatives specific to each collectivity, depending on the interests, needs, resources and actors managing them. The paper at hand presents the road map of a set of initiatives taken by the Bucharest Municipality, appreciated as sustainable development engine, through competitiveness, innovation and human capital. The methodology used is preponderantly qualitative and it is based on the analysis of official documents, key information and case study.

Keywords

• EU
• decentralization and local autonomy
• Bucharest municipality
• local development