Romania, this time is different!
09-03-2023 7:48 pmIt is already common knowledge that, in the process of its accession to the EU and afterwards, Romania used only a part of the European funds it had at its disposal for development and accelerating convergence. Looking at the infrastructure that Hungary and Poland have built during the past decades by maximizing the absorption of European funds, we realize what opportunities Romania has missed during this whole period. A telling example was Poland and the way it managed to navigate the 2008 crisis, as the only EU member state that did not go into recession, taking advantage of the economic boost brought by the absorption of European funds. However, despite the partial absorption of European funds, Romania’s economic convergence with the rest of the EU has advanced, even if at a slower pace than it could have aspired to. The explanation lies in the fact that, all along, there has been at
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