PUBLIC POLICIES IN THE BUCHAREST METROPOLITAN AREA – INERTIAS AND CHALLENGES FOR LOCAL ADMINISTATION

Abstract

Bucharest, the most developed city from Romania, covers perhaps most superlatives in any field for describing its importance in the national territory. This city is the only European capital without having an integrated and coherent urban policy adopted by the state. There are the short term local interventions of adjusting trend, specific to Romania, that don’t rely on general directions of territorial development, because they are neither intended nor assumed by the competent decisional authorities. In general, the problem is lack of partnership between the project elaborating actors and the implementing actors of those projects. Bucharest municipality has important potential reserves, but the general status is far from corresponding to the demands recommended by the European development policy. The loss of potential, as a result of the decision of modernization postponements, produces both immediate negative effects, and also induces vast losses on a medium and long term. It requires greater costs, with resonance in the entire economic system and in the living conditions of the area. In present study, we try to evaluate the public policies regarding the Metropolitan Area of Bucharest which should be centered on 2 main issues – territorial cohesion and polycentric policy. Because of the difficulties of their understanding by the politicians and thus, the slowness of their use, the evaluation made by us is using a qualitative approach. Our conclusions drift from the result of the efforts made by the CPUMB for convincing the politicians of using and implementing the results drawn by researches and studies made.Bucharest Metropolitan Area (BMA), public policies, territorial cohesion, polycentricity