Abstract:
One important outcome of the europenisation of the Romanian planning system is the construction of the
metropolitan areas. The legislative basis for this process was created in 2001. Since then a number of 12 metropolitan
areas have been created as associations of local councils around large cities. They were created initially with the
scope to create larger territorial units for the management of the spatial development in dynamic areas. However, this
initial scope was run over by the implementation of the new urban development concept based on the selection and
support of growth centres, which are – with few exeptions – metropolitan areas. We have shown in this article that
this overlapping enhance some risks like the strenghtening of the regional disparities, and coming at this way in strong
contradiction with the aims of the regional policy.
