The 1989 radical political change triggered Romania's development in what may be called "the transition period". This development means the country's EU accession, NATO integration and participation in the global production and consumption networks. One aspect of the EU accession process is the growing importance of regions. The provisions of the first law on regional development in the history of Romania (Law no. 151/1998 was replaced by Law no. 350/2004) give the institutional framework of

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... ional policy in Romania. This shows that national policy needs to take into account regional differences and problems. This Law also stipulates the formation of development regions compatible to EU NUTS II regions. and Romania exchanged ideas and experiences in Regional Geography. They discussed the theory of geography, regional disparities, sustainable regional development, etc. As a characteristic we should mention the abundance of factual empirical studies and the numerous contributions of physical Regional Geography. Every two years CRG will organise a conference on Regional Geography. The next one will take place in 2006 and we will come back with more details in the future. CRG intends to introduce a new perspective in Romanian academia and it hopes to find international partners in order to present and spread new knowledge. The 2004 participants in the CRG conference founded a cooperative network and they will do their best in order to institutionalise it. The publication of the Romanian Review of Regional Studies is part of this cooperation. The first issue contains some of the papers read at the CRG conference. This Review is the only Romanian geographical journal in English, which will provide information about the regional processes in Romania and about EU accession. We hope that the presence of many international experienced researchers will improve the journal and will contribute to the international integration of Geography as an academic field.