The strategic planning process at administrative-territorial level from the West region based on the regional development plan 2007-2013 West region

The article intends to bring a contribution to the increase of competitiveness among administrative-territorial units from the West development Region, so that the local public authorities can efficiently use the non-reimbursable funds for the next planning stage (2014 – 2020). This objective can be obtained by guiding the local authorities towards elaborating and politically assuming development strategies, which should correspond to the community development needs and be integrated and correlated with the regional and national strategies. Such strategies can be implemented with a lower financial effort by means of projects financed from the European Union grants and shall be based on the experience accumulated so far by the administrative-territorial units from the West development Region in accessing governmental funds, pre-accession funds, as well as the structural funds available in the current planning stage (2007 – 2013).