Victor Chironda European Urban Studies

Bucharest the eurobalcanic way of

urban development
Abstract
Process of shifting from communist system, based on forced industrialization and state led urbanization,
to a democratic market-led private development has a strong impact on Bucharest urban economy and
development.

Due to this shift, Bucharest experienced an important economic growth resulting in a relatively strong
regional competitiveness of the city. European membership of Romania and its growing economic
relations and interdependencies across the world pushed up the process of Bucharest metropolization.

This paper aims to analyze the urban development of Romanian capital city and, focusing on the
Bucharest-Ilfov region, to discuss problems of transition development, urban planning, regional
disparities, uneven development and impact of globalization in this region.

In this research we are going to analyze how the city of Bucharest is situated within place-, territory-,
scale- and network-sensitive geographies of uneven development within Europe and its position within
rescaled and reterritorialized geographies of statehood.

Key words: Bucharest-Ilfov region, metropolization, globalization, urban development, regional

development, urban regions, uneven development.

Introduction
Bucharest, the capital city of Romania, with almost 3 million inhabitants (within metropolitan area), is
the sixth biggest city of Europe (Wikipedia, 2016). The city is by far the biggest urban agglomeration in
the country and it is administratively known as the "Municipality of Bucharest" (Municipiul Bucureti). It
is subdivided into six sectors and has the same administrative level as that of a national county.

Todays configuration of Bucharest city is the result of alternating moments and rhythms which have left
behind both valuable and problematic elements that define its identity. This applies not only to the city
itself but also to its area of influence, the area which constituted the geographical settlement of
Bucharest and which is in a strong relationship of inter-dependence with the city.(Strategic Concept
Bucharest 2035, 2016).

The Bucharest-Ilfov region is composed of the Municipality of Bucharest capital of Romania Ilfov
County, is located in the southern part of the country, in the central side of the Romanian Plain region.
The two entities which compose the region are also the smallest territorial and administrative units of
Romania from the perspective of the surface (The Bucharest Ilfov Council for Regional Development,
2016).

According to 2011 Romanian Census (National Institute of Statistics, 2016), the total resident population
of Bucharest-Ilfov Development Region was 2,272,163 inhabitants, distributed 1,883,425 inhabitants in
Victor Chironda European Urban Studies

Bucharest and 338,738 inhabitants in Ilfov County. This represents 10.5% of the population at the
national level, with 91.8% living in urban area, making it the most urbanized region of the country.

Due to the concentration of the political power, administrative, cultural and social functions and
economical forces, Bucharest is the centre of Romania and the strongest region within the country. Here
are located most of the headquarters of local companies and representative offices of many
international institutions. Bucharest is the wealthiest city in Romania and is one of the biggest industrial
centre and transportation hub of Eastern Europe. The city has many educational institutes, big
convention facilities, cultural, touristic and shopping venues, and recreational areas which make it an
attractive place for many people from South-Eastern Europe as well as from other regions.

But, in the same time, Bucharest-Ilfov region is facing heavy economic, institutional, accessibility, and
development challenges (Pen and Hoogerbrugge, 2012) which obstruct Bucharest to ascend to the top
of international urban ranking-lists.

I will analyze Bucharest from three different perspectives: Bucharest as a city in transition, Bucharest-
Ilfov region as a European metropolitan area and uneven development at a regional scale in Romania.

Bucharest as a city in transition in context of globalization

At the ending of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th centuries, the Bucharest City had a village
landscape, with many one floor houses, covered by green spaces. At the periphery typically rural
landscape prevailed, with the poor households with gardens or orchards and vineyards (Simion et al.,
2012).

In the 1947-1989 communist era, Bucharest was envisioned as a model of socialist urbanization that
exemplified good results of the communist regime. In this period, urban development in Romania was
focused on urban social housing and industrialization. In result, it was the supreme period of urban
reformation of Bucharest, which had a defining impact on planning principles and created a completely
new economic and social environment (Hamilton et al., 2005).

As a result of enforced industrialization Bucharests population increased quickly in 50s. The congestion
was solved by transforming the villages that surrounded Bucharest city into suburbs, with infinite lines
of identical concrete social housing buildings (Boia, 2001).
Victor Chironda European Urban Studies

Figure 1. Bucharest, Alba-Iulia square. Source: Wikipedia.

In 80s, in a relative short time, many neighbourhoods from the centre of the city were demolished and
replaced with the big architectural projects like shopping mall Unirea, Alba Iulia area (Fig.1),
Parliament Palace area or National Library (Simion et al., 2012). This forced urbanization is
emblematically for Bucharest transformation during the 80s.

After the collapse of socialist system Bucharest has experienced extremely large transformation
processes. Massive demographic shrinking, immigration from the others Romanian settlements and
economic restructuring on an unprecedented scale in terms of speed and depth (Simion, 2016). Due to
the deindustrialization and economic breakdown, industrial units were relocated in the suburban area
and the labour market structure in the city region changed significantly. According to Simion (2016)
socioeconomic structure of Bucharest made a significant move away from industry to service sector in a
period of 25 years.

This transition, from the communist industrial centre to a city based on service economy marks a new
phase of Bucharest urban development. Under a strong influence of growing economic
interdependencies across the world, Romanian capital city is struggling to find its new meaning and role
in modern world.

Nowadays, after more than 20 years of Romanian economic transition from a very centralized
communist economy towards a free, capitalist market-oriented one, the city of Bucharest is a polarizing
strong core that attracts investments and economic activities.

After period of stagnation in the 1990s, Bucharest experienced intense economic growth which have
triggered revitalization of the urban infrastructure and led to the development of new industrial areas,
residential projects, shopping malls and high-rise office buildings. This growth resulted in a relatively
strong regional competitiveness of the city (Pen and Hoogerbrugge, 2012).

For example, in 2011, European Cities Monitor Study has seen Bucharest as most dynamic city, with an
increase of 8 places in the top 35 best European cities for business (2011). Also, in this study Romanian
capital city was ranked first in terms of cost of staff, while ranking second on availability of office space.
But despite its wealth and socio-economic potential, Bucharest is facing a series of problems at local and
regional level.
Victor Chironda European Urban Studies

Economic structure of the capital has been affected by de-industrialization and economic growth based
on consumption, associated services, as well as on real estate investment in detriment to the
development of high performance sectors has been proved its unsustainability, especially in the context
of global crisis.

Globalization in Romania has manifested through migration of skilled labour due to lack of growth in the
domestic economy, concentration of economic power and existence of large disparities between cities
and territories (Marinescu, 2012).

One of the trends and directions of globalization in Bucharest was tertiary sector which has been
growing over the last 10 years. Most national companies have their headquarters in the capital city, and
in addition, many of the software multinationals have established offices mainly in the north of the city.
Their influx has created a vast offer of new jobs for Bucharest.

Changing in the economic structure of the city has fuelled the process of deindustrialization (Hamilton et
al., 2005). The old factories, once the citys landmarks have been demolished or are kept in state of
decay. The functional dismantling of the city gave the way to emergence of commercial spaces (Fig.2).
Malls and hypermarkets that have appeared in greater numbers from year to year led to morphological,
flows and cultural changes of the city.

Figure 2. Deindustrialization effects. Former Bragadiru brewery is going to rebirth as a shopping mall. Source:
Adevarul.ro, 2013.

From demographic perspective, Bucharest population of about 1.94 million inhabitants decreased by
3.3% in the last 10 years mainly because of the tendency of wealthiest people to change their residence
from the city to the towns in the Ilfov region - which won 16% of the population (Strategic Concept
Bucharest 2035, 2016).

In 2014, a study published by the UN, which studied nearly 600 cities around the world, ranked
Bucharest on 19 place in top 20 cities with the highest rate of population decline, with the rate of
contraction of -3.77% from 1990 till 2025 (Business Insider, 2014).
Victor Chironda European Urban Studies

One of the problems which lead to loss of population is massive emigration which affects Romania the
last 20 years. The highly skilled and young population is leaving to big cities, many of them abroad. At
the beginning of 2014, only within the EU there were residing more than 2.4 million Romanians, an
increase of 12% compared to 2012 and 120% compared to 2007 (Eurostat, 2016).

According to Stnculescu et al. (2011) the main reasons for which Romanians migrate are: finding a
better-paid job (59%), lack of employment (16%) or just the pursuit of a better life (9%). Of course,
emigration has a bigger impact on rural areas and small towns, but Bucharest also lost more than
200,000 inhabitants during the last 10 years (Bileteanu, 2014). This led to important economic
problems and a weakening of the labour force within the country and in capital-city as well.

Other group of problems is rooted in the features of Bucharests urban development. Strategic Concept
Bucharest 2035 (2016) characterize the urban development of Bucharest as an inconsistent and uneven
process, with a lack of a clear, long-term vision and unsupported by territorial cooperation,
unsustainable and generating social imbalances and not focused on increasing the quality of life of its
residents. Obviously it is one of the most important factors of the population shrinkage.

The increased accessibility of personal cars resulted in a sharp increase of number of cars in the
Bucharest-Ilfov region. Sidewalks, public spaces and green areas which were already in poor condition
due to low interest of the community became public car parks. Arteries are increasingly congested and
pollution generated by them affects the image and attractiveness of central areas of the city (Fig.3). In
2015 Bucharest was ranked as the most affected by traffic jams city in Europe (Bucurestifm.ro, 2015).

Figure 3. Traffic jams in Bucharest. Source: Blog.autovit.ro, 2016.

According to Androniceanu (2016) the lack of regional systems of railways, highways and motorways,
proactive arranged and appropriately sized affects not only the link between municipality and its
outskirts or major transport corridors, but generates major car traffic inside the city, frequent traffic
jams on its major thoroughfares and causes urban pollution and generate social nervousness.
Victor Chironda European Urban Studies

Figure 4. Urban marketing and car parking in Bucharest. Source: Wikipedia.

Aggressive urban marketing manifests itself through the multitude of billboards, posters, illuminated
advertisements, covering the facades of buildings blocking the visibility and leading to an environmental
change of public space (Fig.4).

Moreover, nowadays Bucharest city is facing challenges like urban sprawl, low architectural quality,
uneven development and increasing social segregation (Bileteanu, 2014). In the absence of integrated
spatial planning, economic activities and new housing complexes accumulate continuously in the
territory around the capital, along the main roads linking Bucharest with the country, being interested in
accessibility. The result is a fragmentation of the territory, a worsening of traffic problems, the
concentration of pollution and depletion of biodiversity, energy consumption increased, damage the
landscape. All this problems, in the long run, undermine the competitiveness of the region (Strategic
Concept Bucharest 2035, 2016).

According to Bileteanu (2014) in the last 20 years the urban territory strongly increased while
population decreased. Urban land represented 226,777 hectares in 1993 and went up to 435, 050
hectares in 2011. A weak control of urbanization and real estate development lead to an increasing
pressure on urban infrastructure and utilities. In the same time, the lack of interventions in deprived
neighbourhoods and building of new neighbourhoods only for wealthy people increased the disparities
inside the city and creates deprived communities (Bileteanu, 2014).

Under the impact of political, legislative and economic factors and growing process of privatization and
decentralization recorded between 1989-2012 (Chelcea, 2008), Bucharest municipality districts have
developed significant disparities in population structure, employment rate, demographic aspects and
also economic performance.

For example, Bucharest has 3 big Rroma ghettos, 2 in Ferentari neighbourhood and 1 in Militari
neighbourhood with a total population above 15000 inhabitants (Mionel, 2015). Consequently, these
two neighbourhoods are less attractive for housing projects and receive fewer investments from local
authorities.
Victor Chironda European Urban Studies

According to Suditu (2009) urban sprawl is the result of the search for alternatives to housing and urban
environment. But in the absence of public coordination (transport infrastructure, public transport,
technical infrastructure, urban planning), Bucharest urban sprawl, through chaotic or high-density
constructions contributed to the rural zones transformation, to the destruction of some natural
elements and to excessive densification of the rural areas (Suditu et al, 2010). However, this is a
common phenomenon for most Romanian urban areas (Fig.5).

Figure 5. Cities and towns confronted with urban sprawl phenomenon, 2010. Source: Suditu et al, 2010.

Bucharest - European metropolis or peripheral urban agglomeration?

Starting from the multidimensional character of socio-spatial relations under process of globalization
(Sheppard, 2002) and using characteristics of the metropolization process developed by Brenner (2009)
we are going to analyze how Bucharest is situated within territory of Romania and European Union,
which role is plays in network of European cities and how its role is changing depending on the place
and scale at which it is analyzed.

In the post-socialistic years, Romania has rapidly drawn closer to the west, by joining NATO in 2004, and
becoming a member of the European Union in 2007. As a result, Bucharest became a European capital
and Bucharest-Ilfov region a European development unit, with a significant role within Romania and
Central and Eastern Europe as well.

The Bucharest-Ilfov development region, encompass the national capital Bucharest, as well as the
surrounding Ilfov County. As other development regions, it does not have any administrative powers, its
main function being to co-ordinate regional development projects and manage funds from the European
Union. It is also used as an entity in regional statistical analysis at the European Union NUTS-II level.
Bucharest and Ilfov are the smallest administrative territorial units of Romania in terms of area. The
network of localities of the Bucharest-Ilfov region is composed of 9 cities, 32 communes and 91 villages
with a total population of 2.261.698 inhabitants (Bucharest Ilfov Regional Development Agency, 2016).
Victor Chironda European Urban Studies

According to Eurostat (2016) data, in 2014 in Bucharest-Ilfov GDP per capita in PPS (Purchasing Power
Standards) was 35.600 Euro, representing 129% of the European average (EU28=100). This data show
that Bucharest-Ilfov Development Region is richer than three quarters of the European regions, meaning
richer than any regions of the countries like Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia and the
regions-Baltic states (Fig.6). In Romania, the next development region is West Region which recorded a
GDP per capita in PPS of 15.800 Euro, representing 58% of the EU average in 2014 (Eurostat, 2016).

Figure 6. Gross domestic product (GDP) at current market prices by NUTS II regions, 2014. Source: Eurostat,
Regional Statistic.

For Romania, joining the EU was one of the most favourable events in its history, enabling rapid
economic integration and development, due to EU strategic investments in connecting infrastructure,
elimination of trade barriers an infusion of capital all across the EU.

Romania had some of the fastest growing regions in the entire EU when comparing GDP per Capita
growth between 2000 and 2007. In Bucharest, GDP per Capita grew by a factor of 3.8 between 1995 and
2009, faster than cities like Warsaw, Bratislava, or Prague (Ionescu-Heroiu et al., 2013).

However, within EU, Romania continues to have a peripheral position around the EUs economic mass
and is characterized as a peripheral zone with low accessibility, albeit south-eastern part of the country
presents new potential for logistics (Fig.7).
Victor Chironda European Urban Studies

Figure 7. Accessibility and territorial synopsis within EU. Source: ESPON Atlas 2014.

Even though Bucharest is connected at three Pan-European transport corridors (Fig.8) it has a lower
accessibility compared to other European cities. It is positioned at the bottom of the international
rankings of accessibility, which generates a low attractiveness and competitiveness (Fig.9),.

Figure 8. Pan-European transport corridors. Source: Wikipedia.

Victor Chironda European Urban Studies

Figure 9. Global potential accessibility. Source: ESPON TRACC, 2013.

Due to the lack of motorways and weak transport infrastructure, cities from central and eastern parts of
Romania are bad connected to the main European transport flows (Fig.10).

Figure 10. International urban connectivity by roads. Source: ESPON TRACC, 2013.

It has been suggested (Ionescu-Heroiu et al. 2013) that Romania (and Bucharest accordingly) could shift
its position from a peripheral market to a central trade hub by reducing divisions itself and other
neighbouring countries like Serbia, Moldova, and the Ukraine, and even further east and south toward
Turkey, Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan (Fig.11).
Victor Chironda European Urban Studies

Figure 11. Increased regional integration can shift Romania from peripheral position to a central trade hub. Source:
Ionescu-Heroiu et al. 2013

The Strategic Concept of Territorial Development Romania 2030 (2008) proposes achieving territorial
cohesion within Romania through strengthening regional ties and shifting the country to a central
position at European level through connection to development poles and European development
corridors (Fig.12).

Figure 12. Directions connection and development corridors for Romania. Source: ESPON Atlas.

Speaking about the European funds, Romania, through 9 national programs, benefits from ESIF1 funding
of EUR 30.8 billion representing an average of 1 546 euro per person over the period 2014-2020
(European Commission, 2016). But due to internal political and bureaucratic issues, Romania has the
lowest absorption rate of European funds in UE, with 20% under EU average. (adevarul.ro, 2015)

1
European Structural and Investment Funds
Victor Chironda European Urban Studies

At the national level, Bucharest-Ilfov region, in the period 2007-2013 had the lowest absorption rate
among Romanian development regions but the last years this rate increased up to 73% (bursa.ro, 2016).

EU funds are directed mainly for improving urban infrastructure (metro line extension, underground
passages, heating system) (European Commission, 2015) but also for environmental improvements (coal
plant modernization) and tourism infrastructure (Euractiv.com, 2011). Nevertheless, in 2015, because of
delays in execution of works and bureaucratic struggles at municipal level, Bucharest Municipality has
lost almost EUR 30 mln. from EU funds for 8 urban infrastructure projects (Romania-actualitati.ro, 2015)

Romanian economic engine and uneven development

According to Gregory et al. (2011) speaking about uneven development means to speak about the
spatially and temporally uneven processes and outcomes (socio-economic and physical) that are
characteristic of, and functional to, capitalism.

Starting from Neil Smiths conceptualization of uneven development (Smith, 2010) we are going to
analyze how geographical location of Romanian cities influences uneven development within rescaled
geographies of statehood.

Regional development is a comprehensive and complex process that aims to reduce regional disparities
and ensure balanced and harmonious development in the country, using an interaction of elements of
legal, institutional, economic and demographic nature.

According to National Strategy of Sustainable Development of Romania Horizons 2013-2020-2030

(Romania. Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development, 2008), from the perspective of
territorial development and spatial planning, Romania has a belated links to European trends of
sustainable modern development, manifested through delayed urbanization, presence of deep
disparities between urban and rural areas and between different regions, existence of an important
stock of substandard housing, shortcomings in maintaining and use of land.

After Romania's integration into the European Union, efforts to reduce regional disparities have
intensified. However, they failed to reduce lagging behind of some regions and allowed regional
disparities in GDP per capita, which resulted from gaps in different areas - energy, transport and
communications infrastructure, education, science and technology, availability of skilled labor at
different levels, tourist attraction (Russu, 2014).

Bucharest-Ilfov region is regarded as a economic engine of Romania (Strategic Concept Bucharest 2035,
2016). It is by far the most economical developed Romanian region, which concentrates a wide range of
economical activities, high-skilled labour forces and the best transport network, showing a strong
pattern of uneven development within the country.

For instance, in 2013 Bucharest city alone produced no less than 17.5% of the national budget, even
without its great taxpayers2 (Economica.net, 2014). With them counted, there are over 63% of budget
revenues of Romania, who rose in 2013 to 160 billion of euro. The other districts are far from the

2
Large taxpayers are generally large companies. In 2013, there where 2,500 large taxpayers throughout the country and their
contributions to the budget are accounted separately of the budget of county in which they operate.
Victor Chironda European Urban Studies

capital. From the Figure 13 we can see that Bucharest (B, 30.4 billion lei) is followed at a great distance
by Constana (CT, 5.968). Top 5 is completed by Cluj (CJ), Ilfov (IF, around B) and Timi (TM).

Figure 13. Ranking of the largest taxpayers in Romania's budget in 2013. Source: Economica.net

But economic polarization of Bucharest brings large disparities throughout the Romanian territory. This
important difference between Bucharest and rest of the cities cause an unbalanced territory
development of Romania.

Delayed formation of the Bucharest Metropolitan Area (as a economic zone of international
importance) and deep gap of development (economic, social, cultural, etc.) between the capital and the
rest of the national territory, led to imbalances in the territorial structure (the polarization of adjacent
territory municipality) and decreased the attractiveness and competitiveness of the region at European
and international level (Strategic Concept Bucharest 2035, 2016) (Fig.14, Fig.15).

Consequently, we can see that Bucharest-Ilfov region, more or less, meets all criteria of metropolization
process (Brenner, 2009). City of Bucharest concentrates socio-economic capacities, high-skilled labour
and advanced infrastructure and it is differentiated among local and regional economies according to
specialization within division of labour. Likewise we can notice functional disintegration from
surrounding peripheries and enhanced level of connectivity and interdependence with other globally
integrated metropolitan cores (Vienna, Brussels, Rome, Istanbul).
Victor Chironda European Urban Studies

Figure 14. The intensity of urban spatial polarization. Source: Territorial Atlas of Romania, 2006.

Figure 15. Economic mass gravitational model. Source: World Bank Report: Romanian competitive cities 2013

Data concerning the private real estate distribution (Fig.16), provided by Territorial Observatory site
(2016) shows very clear the main urban poles within Romania, ant their size compared to Bucharest.
Romanian capital city is only one urban centre with more than 100 thousands private buildings. The
following municipalities barely pass 20 000 threshold (Constana- 26000; Timioara-20560; Braov-
20247).
Victor Chironda European Urban Studies

Figure 16. Private real estate distribution by administrative units (2016). Source: Territorial Observatory (2016).

However, even though Bucharest city is the biggest urban agglomeration in Romania, its economic and
demographic power leads to higher unevenness around.

European Commission (2014) states that difference in economic performance between European
regions is due to the gap between rural regions and the good performing capital regions, a phenomenon
that is most striking in several East European countries (e.g. Bulgaria, Romania).

According to the EU classification, any region that has a GDP per Capita that is lower than 75% of the EU
average is a lagging region (Ionescu-Heroiu et al., 2013). Data for 2016 (Eurostat, 2016) show that
Bucharest and Ilfov are the only two counties in Romania that had a GDP per capita above that
threshold (actually above the EU average).

However, from geographical point of view, the most developed regions in Romania form a bridge (a
development bridge) between Bucharest and the West of the country. Timi and Cluj, which are home
to large economic centres Timioara and Cluj-Napoca, are second in line after Bucharest based on their
GDP per Capita level, and have been two of the most dynamic regions in the country (Ionescu-Heroiu et
al., 2013).

This counties, together with Braov, Sibiu, Bihor, and Arad benefit from having cities with economic
potential and from being close to the West of Romania. At the other end of the country, Constana is
supported by the largest port on the Black Sea and easier access to world markets. Iai county benefits
from proximity to Republic of Moldova, Iai being the closest European big city and an attractive
shopping and leisure destination for Moldovan citizens (Fig.17).
Victor Chironda European Urban Studies

Figure 17. Romanias lagging regions. Source: Eurostat, 2009

Moreover, uneven development is not simply a consequence of local conditions because it can reinforce
pre-existing inequalities (Sheppard, 2002). We can observe from the map on Figure 17 the importance
of geographical positionality of the cities within Romania. The localities and counties that are closer to
the western rich market have developed faster than those from central and eastern part of the country.

According to Ionescu-Heroiu et al. (2013) small localities benefit from being close to rich internal
markets. As the map below indicates, large urban areas have a strong polarizing effect the closer a
locality is to such urban centres, the more developed it tends to be (Fig.18). This interconnectivity help
to urbanization process and enlarge the economic potential of Romanian cities.
Victor Chironda European Urban Studies

Figure 18. Cities - key drivers of development in Romania. Source: World Bank, 2013.

Apart from being economic growth engines, cities also function as catalysts for development in less
developed areas particularly for rural areas that are close to these cities. But if comparing to EU
countries, cities in Romania have very small functional urban areas (Fig.19) which lead to a low level of
urbanization and weak local human rural development.

Figure 19. Functional urban areas of European cities. Source: Eurostat regional yearbook, 2016.
Victor Chironda European Urban Studies

Consequently, the Bucharest-Ilfov region is economically unmatched within the country, due to the
concentration in the capital of a large number of production units, educational institutions, research &
development units which significantly enhanced attractiveness of the area to investment and provided a
dynamic development.

Nevertheless, the level of the performance and development potential of the Bucharest-Ilfov region is
much lower than that of most similar regions in the European Union, due to differences in levels of
development between Romania and most European countries.

Conclusion
One of the challenges that countries in Central and South Easter Europe have been facing since socialist
system collapsed was the rapid transformation of urban structure in the capital cities.

They had to cope with a new reality, where the most powerful forces of transformation were not the
central political will or planned economy but free market and globalization. They were forced to fit with
growing interdependencies across the world, to modify their decision-making mechanisms and to
change development priorities.

In this paper, using the concepts of place, scale, territory and network we tried to understand
position of Bucharest city within rescaled and reterritorialized geographies of statehood, and to see how
Romanian capital city is dealing with challenging process of globalization.

Bucharest, wasnt deal very good with this challenges, if compare with Warsaw, Prague, Tallinn or
Budapest. In more than 25 years of Romanian statehood, Bucharest experienced a wide range of specific
problems: lack of planning, urban infrastructure obsolescence and degradation, damage to historical
cultural heritage, urban-rural polarization, uncontrolled urban sprawl, uneven development, poverty
and social segregation.

Bucharest is an example of urban development in a region where still-unreconstructed communism

meets unbridled capitalism. Bucharest urban development is a mix between exigent and pretentious
forces of the EU and the passion and casualness of the Balkans.

However, in spite of all the problems and challenges, Bucharest managed to develop, to grow and to
rediscover its potential. Nowadays Bucharest is struggling to become a European city not just politically
and geographically but also to catch-up with western European cities in creating better living conditions
for people, being more and more attractive for investments and finding his own place in a new, modern
world.
Victor Chironda European Urban Studies

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