MELINDA SZASZ *
ABSTRACT: The sustainable development has an important moral dimension and promotes economic increase and social welfare. Durability, in doctrine, represents the economic development and progress that must maintain during time. Durability, can be, also, defined as an area that demands creativity and economic and social innovation in a coherent frame directed on medium and long term. Nowadays, sustainable development is considered an objective equally important with human rights, education or work rights. A priority of sustainable development must be the fast development of mono-industrial areas.
KEY WORDS: sustainable development, durability, international consecration, economic and social innovation, long term, public administration authorities, financial resources, local autonomy.
1. GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS ABOUT THE CONCEPT OF
„SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT”
The concept of sustainable development implies the satisfaction of actual generations’ needs, without compromising the chances of future generations to satisfy their own demands. The sustainable development has an important moral dimension and promotes economic increase and social welfare. Its objective is to satisfy society’s requirements on short, medium and, especially, long term, in accordance with environment’s preservation and a judicious management of natural resources.
The root of this term is in Latin and means to bolster. The sense of this term is to sustain a community by all their actual and future habitants. The community can sustain it adopting increasing systems on long term and realizing a viable community by taking into consideration the economic, social and environment problems. Other important elements of these efforts are building partnerships and alliances.
* Assist.Prof. at the University of Petroşani, Romania
Durability, in doctrine, represents the economic development and progress that must maintain during time; the conclusion is that environment protection and economic development are, indeed, antagonistic. The idea of sustainable development was first contoured in the former rapport of Global Vigilance Institute in 1984 and continued in 1987 by ONU in the project “Our common future”. The principles and objectives of sustainable development received international consecration in 1992 in “Rio Declaration”. Lately, sustainable development became an imparted objective in many countries1. In our country it is an area that demands creativity and economic and social innovation in a coherent frame directed on medium and long term.
To increase the industrial competitivity the most important instruments that have to be in view are: the development of a viable and opened business environment, the acceleration of companies restructuring process, the awakening of management buy-out process, the development of competitive market, the frequent utilization of informational system in all industrial fields, the promotion of direct and intangible investments, the enlargement of industrial cooperation, the support for companies’
development and the remove of social cohesion.
Nowadays, sustainable development is considered an objective equally important with human rights, education or work rights. Concisely, this process represents the reconciliation of two essential components: the legitimate aspiration for a better life and the efficient management of natural resources to keep our legacy for future generations, too. European Union’s strategy has six main objectives regarding to sustainable development: weather changes and the usage of nonpolluant energetic resources, public health, natural resources management, combating poverty and social exclusion, demographic process, mobility, fields’ usage and territorial development.
Obviously, a priority of sustainable development must be the fast development of mono-industrial areas, which are real “poverty spaces”. For sustainable development act factors as sectorial and institutional-administrative structures, the accretion of institutional efficiency and capacity, the reduction of excessive bureaucracy, a rational implementation of decentralization and local administrative autonomy, coordination at sectorial and macroeconomic level, all these according with subsidiarity principle.
2. THE PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION AUTHORITIES’ ROLE IN THE
„SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT”
Local public administration is one of the important sectors of state administration. Our fundamental law, the Constitution adopted in 1991, established the fundamental principles underpinned to the reforms present in all society’s fields, inclusive public administration – representing the incidence domain of state-citizen relation. So, local autonomy and public services’ decentralization are the constitutional principles of public administration and they must be respected to realize a sustainable
1 Summit-ul Finanţării dezvoltării (Monterrey, mai 2002, Mexico) şi Summit-ul Dezvoltării Durabile (Johannesburg, septembrie 2002, RSA)
The Public Administration Authorities’ Implication ... 197 development of local areas. In 2001, the public administration’s law established, beside local autonomy and public services’ decentralization, other essential principles for public administration’s organization and activity: public administration authorities’
eligibility, legality and consulting citizens in local problem of special interest.
According to law’s settlements, local authorities - city councils and mayors – must solve in the name and interest of local collectivities the public business and resources. Many responsibilities were transferred to local administration, getting the first base with financial decentralization, trying to get administration next to citizens, as much as possible. Public services’ decentralization, as component of public administration’s reform program, must include not only the transfer of activities, but, also, the financial resources’ transfer, a clear demarcation of local authorities’
competences and the elimination of any parallelism between their responsibilities and those of central public administration’s.
Anyway, we must underline that only the constitutional consecration of these principles, however reformative and democratic they are, not followed by their strict conformation and implementation – remain only pure declarative dispositions, without any correspondent in social life. Local authorities have the moral duty to avoid compromising the future generations’ possibilities to satisfy their own needs. To solve a complex problem, such as durability, all the factors that contribute to that problem, must be incorporated in the solution.
From this point of view, local public authorities play a crucial role in the sustainable development, because represent local community and wok in its name.
Local authorities develop, administer and affect many services about life quality and make partnerships with other organizations.
Analyzing the rapport on local public administration’s activities was determined that public authorities, in their way to a sustainable development of emplacements, confront with obstruction of financial resources, the existence of financial prise control and a remote transfer of budgetary founds on political criteria.
All these facts generate a precarious situation for local collectivities, deprived of financial and patrimonial resources necessary to self-determination and sustainable development in the interests of his citizens.
Was, also, observed the discredit of social-democracy values, the corruption institutionalization, the accentuation of poverty – all, facts that infrige local autonomy principle, votary by the Constitution, the local public administration Law and the European Chart of Local Autonomy. Regarding this situation, was underlined that a real sustainable development can’t be realized without respecting the regulations of operative laws, without assuring financial resources necessary to achieve all the local responsibilities and without applying the principles and the objectives registered in the European Chart of Local Autonomy.
In spite of all these, public administration, with its characteristics, it is one of the most qualified factors to project the sustainable development of the community that manages in accordance with the concrete necessities of its members. Today, an efficient administration won’t try to create or to influence the development of one field
or another, because this assignment belongs to managers’ companies’ responsibility.
Today, an administration, that knows and respects its role, carries on an attractive economic environment and develops the systems that generate the movement of economic and social activities.
3. CONCLUSIONS
The problem of sustainable development must be approached from the point of view of the equilibrium between the necessity of continuing the economic and social growth and the necessity of environment conservation – as single solution to increasing quality life issue.
As we can see from recent conferences’ thematic, the Governs were preoccupied to elaborated regulations to sustain the economic growth and, in the same time, to impose severe conditions regarding environment preservation. Hereby, we can reconcile the human capital with the natural capital, made by regenerative and nonregenerative resources. That’s why, more than ever, the sustainable development must be based on innovation – as the only way where through man can find ways to increase the wellbeing and to rationally use natural resources, as much as necessary to the next generations.
Creating and implementing to every level of Romanian society sustainable development strategies, can generate profound transformations that finally can decrease the inequality between Romania and European Union. Romania is not the only country in the world that confronts itself with globalization offensive. That why, this process mustn’t be ignored, so much the more it has sometimes aggressive nuance in its interaction with economic, social and politic structures of a country.
In consequence, Romanian Government and the civil society, as principal vector of democracy, must take care of our own environment and resources. This can be achieved by initiating ample actions intended to assure a durable economic development for Romania. In this actions there must be found: the technological development, the social protection and the environment preservation.
REFERENCES:
[1]. Armstrong, H.; Taylor, J. - Regional Economics and Policy, Phillip Publishers, Oxford, 1985
[2]. Brinkerhoff, D.V. - The Evolution of Current Perspectives on Institutional Development:
an Organisational Focus, Univesity of Maryland, 1985
[3]. Constantinescu, M.; Iorgovan, A.; Muraru, I.; Tănăsescu, E.S. - Constituţia României revizuită - comentarii şi explicaţii, Editura All Beck, Bucureşti, 2004,
[4]. Minkova, M. - Regional Development in the CEECs. The Association Agreements and EU Regional Aid Policy, OSI/LGI, Budapesta, 2000
[5]. *** - Legislaţie (Legea de revizuire a Constituţiei României nr. 429/2003, publicată în M.Of. nr.758/29 octombrie 2003; Tratatul instituind o Constituţie pentru Europa;
Legea 215/2001 a administraţiei publice locale, publicată în M.Of. nr. 204 din 23 aprilie 2001)
Annals of the University of Petroşani, Economics, 6 (2006), 199-206 199