Map of the metropolitan areas of Romania

Metropolitan areas in Romania are private agencies of public utility which were established by Law no. 351 of 6 July 2001 with the aim of encouraging the development of neighboring towns and communes within a radius of 30 km. The first to be established was the metropolitan area of Iași, on 8 April 2004, while the last is that of

Drobeta-Turnu Severin Drobeta-Turnu Severin (), colloquially Severin, is a city in Mehedinți County, Oltenia, Romania, on the northern bank of the Danube, close to the Iron Gates. "Drobeta" is the name of the ancient Dacian and Roman towns at the site, and the modern t ...

, on 28 August 2019. There are 24 metropolitan areas in Romania that have been constituted as of 2019.

Legislative status

The 2001 legislation regulates the status of the 319

cities A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be de ...

in Romania according to their population and regional importance (Law no. 351 of 6 July 2001): * rank 0 – the

capital Capital may refer to: Common uses * Capital city, a municipality of primary status ** List of national capital cities * Capital letter, an upper-case letter Economics and social sciences * Capital (economics), the durable produced goods used fo ...

of Romania, municipality of European importance; * rank I – municipalities of national importance, with potential influence at European level; * rank II – municipalities of inter-county or county importance or with a balancing role in the network of localities; * rank III – towns. Legislation also restricts the possibility to engage into a metropolitan area project to only those cities that are of rank 0 or I. The metropolitan areas are thus organized as legal entities without legal personality, being able to function on a perimeter independent of the limits of the administrative-territorial units, established by mutual agreement by the local public administration authorities. Legislation was amended in 2011 to allow county seat municipalities to form metropolitan areas in association with urban and rural localities in their immediate vicinity (i.e., up to 30 km from the main city).

Constituted metropolitan areas

Planned metropolitan areas

Conurbations

* Baia Mare–Satu Mare (estimated population: 400,000) * Bucharest–Ploiești–Târgoviște (estimated population: 3 million) * Lower Danube (Galați–Brăila) (estimated population: 580,000) * Prahova Valley (Câmpina–Predeal) , (estimated population: 150,000) * Suceava–Botoșani (estimated population: 300,000) * Timișoara–Arad (estimated population: 805,000)

Functional urban areas

In the EU, as defined by

Eurostat Eurostat ('European Statistical Office'; DG ESTAT) is a Directorate-General of the European Commission located in the Kirchberg quarter of Luxembourg City, Luxembourg. Eurostat's main responsibilities are to provide statistical information to ...

, a functional urban area (FUA) – formerly known as larger urban zone (LUZ) – consists of a city and its commuting zone.

References