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This paper strives to discuss the role played by the newly created metropolitan areas around the seven growth poles from the perspective of the cooperation between the urban centers on the one hand and the neighboring rural communities on the other. It looks at the governance mechanisms in place at the level of the metropolitan areas and tries to assess if the cities and the neighboring communities are equal partners in these cooperation schemes. The paper also looks at one of the most important functions of these metropolitan areas - strategic planning in the form of drafting the integrated plans for urban development (IPUDs). We look at this function also from the perspective of the relations between the cities and their hinterlands. The paper has the following structure: section two briefly examines the concept of growth poles and their creation in Romania; section three looks at strategic planning as a tool for the implementation of the growth pole policy; section four presents the methodology of the study; section five details the main findings of the research, while section six briefly presents the recommendations and the conclusions. The empirical research for the study consisted in interviews with public servants working for the communities that are part of the metropolitan areas formed around the growth poles. As for the conclusions, the authors wish to emphasize that metropolitan areas should be understood in the broader context of the territorial reform.

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Th e goal of this paper is to assess the role of "national curricula" (national education standards) determining the contents of public-administration (PA) education. To achieve our goal we deliver fi ve case studies describing relevant information about the situation in the Czech Republic, Poland, Romania, Russia and Slovakia, all with diff erent approaches how to apply national PA curricula. In the fi nal part we try to evaluate the pros and cons of "national curricula" from the point of view of the development of PA education. Our research documents that extremes (no regulation and too strict regulation) do not deliver in less developed countries; the right path for such conditions should be somewhere in between -indicative national curricula and also indicative course contents should be available -something that seems to be achieved in Romania somehow.

This short editorial proposes a specific topic for comprehensive research in COVID-19 in the CEE area, namely the role of politicians and politics during the pandemic. The text includes three short country case studies (Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia), describing different aspects of the politics/political fighting relationship and the COVID-19 pandemic. The experts’ arguments suggest that the “motto of the day” should be working together and not fighting each other. However, nothing (“almost nothing”) like this is visible in our region – or at lease in our three case studies, the only positive aspect from this point of view is the joint call of all parliamentary group leaders for vaccination in Slovenia. By its content, the editorial calls for comprehensive research on the aims of the current antagonistic situation and possible actions.