Romania - Political & Administrative

Romania has an area of 238.391 km2, being the 12-th country of Europe as size. The Capital of Romania is Bucharest, with a population of 1.924.959 inhabitants. Romania is organised according to the principle of separation and balance of the legislative, executive and judicial powers. The legislative power is represented by the Romanian Parliament, with two chambers: the Senate - 137 members and the Chamber of Deputies 314 members. There are 18 additional places in the Chamber of Deputies reserved for the representatives of the national minorities. The executive power is represented by the Government, led by a Prime Minister, designated by the President of the state. According to the constitutional provisions and laws, the President of Romania, the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate are elected by universal, equal, direct, secret and free suffrage. The mandate of the Chamber of Deputies and Senate is on a term of 4 years, and since 2004, the mandate of the President of Romania is on a term of five years. At the same time, in case of the local elections, the mandate is on a term of four years (Romanian Constitution, Revised Edition ; Matei L, Matei, A, United Cities and Local Governments).

The judicial power is represented by courts of law, Public Ministry, Superior Council of Magistracy. The territory of Romania is organized administratively into villages, communes – administrative units comprising a number of villages, cities and counties – administrative units comprising a number of cities. Some cities are declared municipalities, according to the provisions of the law. The public administration in the territorial- administrative units shall be organized and shall function on the grounds of the principles of decentralization, local autonomy, de-concentration of public services, and eligibility of the government authorities, legality and citizen consultation in solving local matters of particular interest (Matei L, Matei, A, United Cities and Local Governments).

At country level there are three hierarchical levels: national, county and local. The county level is represented by the 42 counties of Romania, including Bucharest. Each county has its residence at municipality level, representing the political, economic, socio-cultural and scientific centres of the county. At each county level, the local government authority is exerted by a County Council, coordinating the activities of communes, city and municipality councils. The Government of Romania appoints a prefect for each county, inclusively for Bucharest, who are state representatives at local level. The Prefect directs the de-concentrated public services of ministries and other bodies of the central government in the territorial-administrative units (Matei L, Matei, A, United Cities and Local Governments).