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.