Building a Metropolitan Area Model for the Romanian Administrative Spa ce

The Romanian administrative system needs to enhance its ability to face the challenges brought about by the still fresh accession into the European Union. One of the latter deals with the metropolitan areas is a concept with rather recent use in Romanian literature and the practice of local self-government. So far, the implementation of the metropolitan concept has been put into practice in terms of different administrative territories, associating and co-operating to achieve efficiency in local development processes. This paper, however, builds upon the existing European and American literature on metropolitan areas and aims at designing a new partnership-based model of metropolitan areas suitable for the Romanian environment. In this respect, based on the European principles (namely: economic and social cohesion, specialisation, exclusivity and subsidiary), this model will analyse the mutations emerging with the changes in the local decision-making processes. The transfers of competences, as well as the manner in which the administrative system resists change, will be taken completely into consideration. The objective of this paper is to analyse the application of those principles inside the Bucharest Metropolitan Area - an area which is still under construction. The conditions that must be implemented inside the Metropolitan Area, the objectives and domains of co-operation, and the solutions that must be applied in order to obtain the compatibility and performance of the administrative units which make up this metropolitan area will also be taken into co nsideration.