The new bodies will have more authority than the current county administrative ones. One of the main objectives of the project is to secure a balanced economic development, deputy Prime Minister Liviu Dragnea has announced.

Liviu Dragnea: “If this project should be politicized, it will destroy Romania. We have but one chance, namely that regions should be structured based on a thorough analysis and following nationwide debate, such that the final outcome should pave the way for Romania’s future development. The process won’t reflect any ethnic criteria, this is out the question. No European country has ever done that. We’re not advocating territorial autonomy based on ethnic criteria. The administrative restructuring has two main goals: to generate balanced development and to bring public services closer to citizens”.

Ever since 2011 the leaders of the Hungarian ethnic community in Romania have repeatedly stated they oppose any project to restructure the country that wouldn’t observe ethnic criteria. Thousands of Hungarian nationals, which account for nearly 7% of the country’s population, primarily clustered in central Romania, staged a protest on Sunday, calling for territorial autonomy and an end to the restructuring process. The Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians in Romania did not attend the demonstrations, which Prime Minister Victor Ponta appreciated. The Prime Minister insisted that the Hungarian leaders had understood they could achieve much more through dialogue and negotiation than through hostility and extreme actions.

On the other hand, Liberal-Democrat leader Vasile Blaga said the project could be based on the operating principles that apply at EU level:

Vasile Blaga: “There’s no need for innovation in this respect. All we have to do is observe EU standards in this matter. All states have restructured their administrative units in order to improve public services at extremely low costs. The European Commission resolution 1054 of 2001 clearly states the principles any regional restructuring should observe, namely, historic, geographic, social, cultural, economic, ecological and demographic criteria. For instance, the population of any region should total at least 800.000 people and must not exceed 3 million people”.

By July 1st a consultative council made up of representatives of the academic world, politicians, employers’ associations, trade unions and NGOs, is due to conclude the debates and impact assessments based on which the regional restructuring will be conducted.