EVOLUTION AND POSSIBILITIES OF REGIONALIZATION IN ROMANIA SCUTARIU Adrian Liviu1, NĂSTASE Carmen2, POPESCU Mihai3 1 Assistant Ph.D. Student, 2 Associate Professor Ph.D., 3 Lecturer Ph.D. Faculty of Economics and Public Administration, Economy and Tourism Department, "Ştefan cel Mare University of Suceava, Romania,
[email protected] Abstract: This article aims to make a short foray in the phenomenon of regionalization in Romania, presenting an evolution of the territorial administrative division since the twentieth century until now. The current regionalization, as a demand for application of EU regional development policy is a combination the historical and functional criteria. Although some decisions are taken regionally now, the center still has a major role, the regions not having judicial personality or administrative role. Key words: regions, regional development, Romania, European Union, territorial administrative units JEL Classification: P25, R58 1. Introduction Manifestations of spatial organization and planning of Romania were often related to certain historical and political events. Spatial planning (Puşcaşu V., 2000, pp. 74-75), as a set of ideas and practical measures concerning the process of arranging space components and resize relations between them, is based on the administrative-territorial organization, complex action of territorial structures modeling, by the constitutional provisions, in order to determine the administrative-territorial units considered the best at a time for management and application of local development policy, from the economic, financial, cultural, social, etc. points of view. The criteria that the administrative territorial organization is based on are political, social, historical, functional, economic and environmental ones. From these criteria, the political one is the first in terms of importance.