Instruments for Metropolitan Development in Romania: between shortcomings and possibilities
Instruments for Metropolitan Development in Romania: between shortcomings and possibilities

Summary/Abstract: European urban agglomerations are becoming increasingly more complex, more resource-consuming, and more prominent from a political point of view: advanced metropolitan areas such as Amsterdam, Barcelona or Bologna are now touted as leaders of innovation and urban diplomacy, capturing interest and attracting investments. But shifting from competitiveness to convergence areas and towards Eastern Europe, size starts to become a management problem – especially at the odd, insufficiently-regulated metropolitan scale. With the resurgence of the metropolitan concept in the European discourse and subsequent financial incentives, new spatial planning and governance instruments have been implemented across the Eastern Europe. This is the case of the Romanian Intercommunity Development Associations (IDA) managing Metropolitan Areas, which now reflect both the bold European aspirations for Integrated and Sustainable Urban Development as well as a profoundly unreformed local administration. In order to govern these territories, a new administrative and management model is needed – however, more ambitious projects such as the regionalisation or administrative overhaul are still very distant possibilities. Starting from this premise, the paper explores possibilities for soft reforms and incremental improvements within the current administrative framework, using the case of the Cluj Metropolitan Area IDA. It draws on the advantages and problems of having an NGO as a placeholder for consolidated local governance and advances a possible option for the organisation of IDAs in the next programming period (2021-2027) which proposes rescaling of competencies at metropolitan level, specifically for coordinating local investments as ESIF Intermediate Bodies.

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