Political-Legal Debates on Romania’s Administrative-Territorial Reform and Regionalisation

In search of solutions for durable peace in Europe, the latter part of the 20th century witnessed the emergence of several western-based theories that redefined the relations of national states and the way they related to their territorial subdivisions: functionalism, federalism, neo-functionalism, intergovernmentalism, multi-level governance, etc. In this context, several administrative reforms were carried out in order to stimulate decentralisation and regionalisation. After the fall of communism, the states in Eastern and Central Europe aligned with European Union “fashion” and practices. Taking the same road, Romania has shyly proceeded towards local autonomy, keeping the territorial divisions of its communist past. As far as regionalisation is concerned, it formally adopted the European Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics (NUTS). However, it did not transform the region into a true governance layer.