DESCENTRALIZATION STRATEGIES FOR PUBLIC SERVICES WITHIN EU MEMBER STATES – EMPIRICAL STUDY

Decentralization is an opportunity to provide public services depending on the citizens’needs and taking into consideration the financial constraints of the local budgets. The real convergence involves a similarity of the decentralization degree for public services between the countries wishing to join and those states which are already members of the eurozone. The purpose of this study is to analyze the decentralization results for public services provided by Romanian local authorities compared with the results of EU Member States and to identify decentralization strategies appropriate for our country.