Europeanization and new patterns of multi-level governance in Romania

This study considers whether EU cohesion policy and related pre-accession instruments have contributed to the development of a more compound polity in Romania and, specifically, considers the extent to which there is a process of Europeanization characterized by emergent features of multi-level governance. In particular, it brings forward a number of explanatory factors which account for the process of regions' creation in a centralized unitary post-communist state such as Romania. It shows that the regional reforms and regionalization have occurred in a very functional way and mostly as a means of accessing and managing regional-level structural funds. It concludes by illustrating the emergence of new patterns of multi-level governance in the context of socialization and engagement with the EU's cohesion policy.