Bucharest as a Collective Project: Fragments of an Urban Practice, 1998–2026

I’m at a conference in the Delta about the new financial programming with representatives from DG Regio, as well as local and central government officials, and there’s a heated discussion about how to make European investments more efficient and impactful. I take advantage of the coffee break to ask the European Commission team leader if he has ever heard any discussion about the regeneration of the Dâmbovița River and the importance of such a project for Bucharest. I was surprised when he told me straight out that he sees a major problem in implementing such a complex project as long as responsibility is shared, with little chance of success unless Bucharest’s form of administration changes (wow, the guy really knows what he’s talking about!).

He then went on to tell me about Warsaw (being Polish himself), explaining how it had gone through a similar experience of many years of stagnation due to fragmented development plans resulting from the division of responsibil