The Situation of the Absorption of European Structural and Investment Funds in Romania during the Programming Period 2014-2020

Abstract

One of the main advantages that the European Union's membership provides is European funds. Cohesion Policy or the Common Agricultural Policy are policies that regulate the organization of European structural funds and investment funds within a programming period. This article aims to inventory the European strategic and programming framework that regulates the absorption of European structural and investment funds at European level, the situation and allocations of the established operational programs, as well as the absorption dynamics at the level of the operational program in Romania. The need for a significant absorption process proves to be imperative for Romania in the conditions in which the tensions affecting the European project, both inside and outside, prove to be more and more accentuated. Identifying the absorption dynamics 4 years after the start of the programming period is likely to illustrate an image of Romania's performance in this process as well as to provide a set of future steps to streamline the absorption process.