USV Annals of Economics and Public Administration (Dec 2015)
A COHESIVE ROMANIA: NEW INSTRUMENTS, NEW CONCEPTS, MAYBE NEW REGIONS
Abstract
During 2013-2014, there have been numerous debates on a new territorial organization of Romania, with emphasis on administrative decentralization and on a regrouping of counties in regions, but the process was postponed due to the presidential elections from the end of 2014. Given that Romania's territorial reform debate was focused more on political interests, through this paper, I try to identify how the regional scientists define the regionalization process and also to offer useful policy suggestions / advice / interventions to reconsider regional development in Romania. Understanding regional processes, under the aegis of Europe 2020, is elementary in order to optimise Romanian regional evolution. Without claiming to provide a model on how to redefine Romanian regions, this paper proposes some guidelines for long-run regional trajectories and some suggestions regarding the sources of change in Romanian regional policy.
