Although the EU is the richest region in the world, however, there are significant disparities between its Member States on the GDP / inhabitant, the labour productivity and the employment. To reduce these disparities, all the Member States have taken measures in the joint regional development policy and in the economic and social cohesion policy. At the political level, the strategy document adopted by the Council says that, each member country must develop a political document called a development strategy which negotiates with the European Commission for the preparation of Sectoral and Regional Programs. In 2007, the European Commission approved the cohesion policy of the National Strategic Reference Framework 2007 to 2013 of Romania which establishes the European Union priorities and interventions that can help achieve the convergence objective. The National Strategic Reference Framework 2007 - 2013 links the National Development Plan 2007 - 2013 with the Community Strategic Guidelines and the revised Lisbon Strategy. The National Strategic Reference Framework with the National Reform Program and the Convergence Program respond to all the efforts made for achieving this convergence by defining the direction of the national action for the recruitment of European policy objectives and strategies.structural funds, regional disparities, convergence, economic and social cohesion, regional competitiveness

Paul LUCIAN

English

Research Papers in Economics

Revista economică 
 
 108
Paul LUCIAN, Ph.D. Associate professor, 
“Lucian Blaga” University of Sibiu  
 
 
THE EU CONTRIBUTION TO THE IMPLEMENTATION 
OF THE CONVERGENCE OBJECTIVE IN ROMANIA 
(2007-2013) 
 
 
Abstract: Although the EU is the richest region in the world, however, 
there are significant disparities between its Member States on the GDP / 
inhabitant, the labour productivity and the employment.  
To  reduce  these  disparities,  all    the  Member  States  have  taken 
measures in the joint regional development policy and in the economic 
and social cohesion policy. At the political level, the strategy document 
adopted by the Council says that, each member country must develop a 
political document called a development strategy which negotiates with 
the European Commission for the preparation of Sectoral and Regional 
Programs.  
In 2007, the European Commission approved the cohesion policy of 
the National Strategic Reference Framework 2007 to 2013 of Romania 
which establishes the European Union priorities and interventions that 
can help  achieve the convergence objective.  
The National Strategic Reference Framework 2007 - 2013 links the 
National Development Plan 2007 - 2013 with the Community Strategic 
Guidelines  and  the  revised  Lisbon  Strategy.    The  National  Strategic 
Reference  Framework  with    the  National  Reform  Program  and  the 
Convergence Program respond to all the efforts  made for achieving this 
convergence  by  defining  the  direction  of  the  national  action  for  the 
recruitment of European policy objectives and strategies.  
 
Keywords: structural funds, regional disparities, convergence, economic 
and social cohesion, regional competitiveness.  
 
JEL Classification: O18, R11, F15 
 
The  profound  political  changes  which  began in  December  1989, 
especially the access to information not yet of public awareness during the Nr. 1 2 (49)/2010 
 
  109 
Communist  regime  realized  the  discrepancies  between  Romania's 
development model and  the development model of the European Member 
States of the European Union. Romania's EU accession perspective led to 
the adoption of a new philosophy of development to ensure the organic 
correlation of the economic, social and environmental aspects.  
The EU is currently one of the richest regions in the world, but 
there are wide disparities both between its different countries and within 
them,  regarding  the  gross  domestic  product  per  capita,  the    labour 
productivity and the employment of labour . The instrument that explicitly 
addresses the disparities  between  the European regions and countries is 
the common regional policy involving the transfer of resources between  
the Member States through the European budget.  
A regional policy objective is the economic and social cohesion in 
the sense that all the members of the European Union benefit from the 
reduction  in  disparities  between  the  poorest  regions  and    the  more 
prosperous ones.  
After the last enlargement, the European Commission has continued 
to simplify the management of the cohesion policy as a politically based 
strategy document adopted by the European Union, each EU country must 
prepare a policy paper on the Development Strategy to be negotiated with 
the European Commission, this document representing  the sectoral and 
regional programs.  
In this context, Romania has prepared, for the period 2007 – 2013, a 
National Development Plan which represents the document for strategic 
planning and financial programming and foster multi guiding economic 
and social development of the country in accordance with  the principles 
of  the EU cohesion policy. The plan sets the objective of reducing global 
swift of their socio-economic disparities between Romania and the other 
European  Union  member  states.   The  plan  treats in  detail the  specific 
objectives of the development process on six priority directions. These 
directions  are:  the    increasing  competitiveness  and  the  developing  the 
economy knowledge, the   bringing to European standards of the basic 
infrastructure  with  emphasis  on  a  sustainable  development  of 
infrastructure and vehicles by reducing environmental impact, the priority 
to  protect  and  improve  environmental  quality  providing  improved  life 
standards  by  providing  public  utility  services  especially  the  water  and 
waste management, the  risk prevention and the intervention in cases of 
natural  disasters,  the    improvement  and  the    better  use  of  the  human Revista economică 
 
 110
capital  aimed  to  promote  social  inclusion  and  strengthen  the  
administrative capacity to develop  modern and flexible labour markets, a 
rural economy and an increased productivity in the agricultural, forestry 
and fishing sector, containing provisions on the rational use of the land, 
the ecological rehabilitation of degraded or contaminated land and food 
safety objectives to reduce the disparities of development between regions 
and within them, intending to improve the administrative performance of  
the local public infrastructure, the national and cultural heritage protection 
and the integrated rural development.  
Since  Romania's  EU  accession,  the  European  Commission 
approved, in July 2007, the National Strategic Reference Framework 2007 
to  2013  for  a  priority  action  of    the  EU  structural  instruments  in  the 
economic  and  social  cohesion  policy,  which  links  the  priority  of  the 
National Development Plan 2007 - 2013 and the Community Strategic 
Guidelines on Cohesion 2007 - 2013 and the revised Lisbon Strategy.  
National  Strategic  Reference  presents  Romania’s  economic  and  
social situation  and a Synthesis of the Sectoral Operational Programs 
(SOP) and the Regional Operational Program (ROP) to be implemented in 
order  achieve the convergence objective.  
At  operational  level  the  European  Commission  adopted  national 
and regional programs for each EU country. They are defined only at the 
aggregate level or the most important priorities were highlighted as the 
most important steps.  
European Commission sets specific necessities of the regions and of 
the  less  developed  countries  around  three  new  priorities  called 
Community  objectives:  convergence,  regional  competitiveness  and 
employment, namely the European territorial cooperation. The programs 
under the Convergence objective aim the countries and the less developed 
regions whose GDP / inhabitant is less than 75% of average.  
In these regions, we have to work towards improving the conditions 
that stimulate the growth factors that lead to a real convergence.  
Following  the  2007  EU  enlargement  to  27  members,  the  EU 
average  GDP  /  inhabitant  dropped  and  several  regions  are  no  longer 
eligible  for  the  convergence  objective.  In  this  case,  the  European 
Commission  proposed  a  temporary  support  for  regions  in  which  the 
objective conditions have not changed and have not completed the process 
of convergence. These regions will be supported until 2013.  Nr. 1 2 (49)/2010 
 
  111 
To achieve the strategic vision of the National Strategic Reference 
Framework 2007 - 2013 in cohesion policy, the European Commission 
has  earmarked  Romania  for  period  2007  -  2013  with  a  total  of 
approximately 19.67 billion euro of which 19.21 billion euros for the” 
Convergence "; the national co-financing is estimated at 5.35 billion at a 
rate of 73% from 27% of the public and private sources. For a second 
goal, "European territorial cooperation”, there remained 0.43 billion euros. 
The main instruments used by the EU structural funding programs under 
the Convergence objective are: the European Regional Development Fund 
(ERDF),the  European Social Fund (ESF) and the  Cohesion Fund. These 
three structural funds are based on the following principles: the principle 
of  concentration  on  the  objectives,  the  principle  of  programming  for 
several years, the principle of addition, the principle of partnership with 
the European countries, the local community and the local development 
actors. We need to make clear that the liability, the management and the 
destination of the structural funds are the responsibility of the European 
Commission.  
The  European  Regional  Development  Fund's  mission  is  to  co-
finance productive investment, to modernize and diversify the economic 
structure of the countries and the regions covered by the Convergence 
objective.  
The courses of action are: the establishment of closer links between 
research institutions and development, the improvement of the access to 
finances  and  the  encouraging  of  the    new  business  initiatives,  the  
expansion and the modernization of basic infrastructure such as transport 
networks,  telecommunications  and  energy,  water  supply  and  facilities, 
environmental  protection,  in  particular  by  supporting  eco-industries,  to 
rearrange  disused  industrial  sites,  preventing  natural  and  technological 
risks, the use of less polluting vehicles and the use of renewable energies; 
consolidation  of  the    institutional  capacity  of  national  and  regional 
governments to use these funds.  
The European Social Fund's mission is to co-finance actions such as 
professional    training  and  help  at  work.  The  key  areas  of  action  are: 
improving  quality  and  response  capacity  of  existing  institutions  on 
employment,  education  systems  and  social  services  and  insurance, 
increased  investment  in  human  capital  to  enhance  education,  adapting 
skills and access for all citizens to the labour market to adapt skills and Revista economică 
 
 112
access  for  all  citizens  on  the  labour  market,  promoting  adaptation  to 
changes by the government administrative capacity.  
The Cohesion Fund was established in 1992 to help the poorest 
countries of the European Union to be integrated in the Single Market, 
particularly  investing  in  transport  infrastructure  and  environmental 
protection. This fund aims to countries whose GNP / inhabitant is less 
than  90%  of  average.  It  is  estimated  to  remain  a  priority  the  trans-
European transport networks and the environmental infrastructure taking 
into account the necessities of the new EU countries.  
The  European  Commission,  which  has responsibility  for  the  use 
and the destination of the structural funds, has taken steps to reform the 
basic  principles  for  improvement  trying  to  implement  the convergence 
objective in the Member States. Thus, the  following improvements were 
considered necessary and urgent: encouraging a more strategic approach 
to  programming,  further  decentralization  of  responsibility  between  
partners present in the different countries and the regions and at the  local 
authority level, improving efficiency and quality of programs financed by 
a strengthened and a more transparent partnership, by  clearer and more 
rigorous monitoring mechanisms , a simplified management system by 
introducing  additional  transparency,  differentiation  and  proportionality, 
ensuring an adequate financial management.  
Most financial resources will focus on the poorest countries and 
regions, focusing on new member states. We believe that an  effective 
regional development policy will spores if  annual dialogue with European 
institutions will be held which can include reviews on the  progress and 
the results of the national and regional programs. 
 
 
References:  
1. Mirela Diaconescu, "European Economy", Ed Uranus, Bucharest, 2004 
2. Peter Prisecaru, "EU common policies", Publishing House, Bucharest, 
2004  
3.  Marin  Dinu,  Cristian  Socol, Marius Marinas, "European  Economy", 
Economic Publishing House, Bucharest, 2004  
4. Dumitru Miron, "EU Economy", Ed Luceafarul, Bucharest, 2006  
5.  Christian  Weise,  "What  Future  for  EU  Regional  Policy"  European 
Regional Policy and Growht (The World Bank, 2003). 
 

Cristian Socol, Marius Marinas, &quot;European Economy&quot;,

EU common policies&quot;,

European Economy&quot;, Ed Uranus,

What Future for EU Regional Policy&quot; European Regional Policy and Growht (The World Bank,

THE EU CONTRIBUTION TO THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE CONVERGENCE OBJECTIVE IN ROMANIA (2007-2013)

http://economice.ulbsibiu.ro/RePEc/blg/reveco/4911lucian.pdf

THE EU CONTRIBUTION TO THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE CONVERGENCE OBJECTIVE IN ROMANIA (2007-2013)

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