Recent Regionalization Discourses and Projects in Romania with Special Focus on the Székelyland

Abstract

The paper discusses the post-communist development and evolution of the regionalization process in Romania. In the frst part, we distin-guish between two periods of regionalization: the preparation period for the EU accession, and the post-accession period. It turns out that the process of regionalization was oriented to EU criteria and expectations, which are in turn low in what it concerns the establishment of regional development institutions and of different territori-al levels of the NUTS system. A radical change into this question was introduced very recently, at the beginning of 2013, when different region-alization projects have been launched by politi-cal parties and academics as well. Therefore, in the second part of the paper our main aim is to analyze the latest regionalization projects and scenarios, emphasizing one of the most contro-versial questions of this process related to the ethno-cultural diversity of the country and to the question of Székelyland.