Abstract:

Regionalism has quite a strong tradition in Romania. Ever since the formation of the modern Romanian state the state divisions occurred as solid administrative units, each of them having its own peculiarities. Recently, after having set clear goals to join the European Union structures, Romania has been compelled to improve social and economic conditions. This process began on the background of historical inter-regional disparities, mostly due to external factors. For this reason a new division was applied, one that exceeds the territorial-administrative allotment, in order to serve the more pragmatic interests regarding social life improvement.

The last century points out a widening of disparities among regions. Given the current conditions the main goal is to reduce discrepancies as much as possible. In this regard regional economic development policies should be applied. There are several options regarding these policies, their application should be done taking into account the characteristics of each region.

The present research puts forward an analysis to identify the situation of the regions of development in Romania. Such an analysis can be considered when setting the options regarding the approach of the future prospects of local or regional administrative units.