THE INEXTRICABLE LINK BETWEEN THE GROWTH EFFECT OF NEXT GENERATION EU FUNDING AND THE NATIONAL INSTITUTIONAL QUALITY: THE ROMANIAN CASE
RRSS 2026 No. 29 - Romanian Review of Social Sciences
-
Authors:
• Constantin BRĂGARU -
Keywords: European funds, economic growth, institutional quality
-
Abstract:
\r\n The European Union’s Cohesion Policy has played overtime and still plays a key role in supporting the economic and social development of Romania as in supporting the economic development of any other EU member state. Furthermore, to mitigate existing national economic vulnerabilities at EU level, doubled by the difficult economic consequences created by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, additionally to the EU Cohesion Policy funds, the European Commission launched the Next Generation EU program, program focused on financing National Recovery and Resilience Plans (NRRP). The key objective of every member state’s NRRP, including Romania’s, is to accelerate the recovery process and enhance resilience. \r\n \r\n In the context of massive multiannual financial stimulus packages - namely the Cohesion policy funds (2021–2027) and the Recovery and Resilience Facility (2021–2026) - projections pointed toward a robust growth for the Romanian economy. Contrary to expectations, however, our country registered delays in absorbing European funds, particularly in the implementation of the NRRP, primarily caused by limitations in national administrative capacity. \r\n \r\n This paper intends to limit itself to analyzing the inextricable link between the economic growth driven by Next Generation EU funding and the limited national administrative capacity. Especially, this paper with its findings intends to highlight the fact that our weak public administration has led to Romania’s low capacity to implement the NRRP and that although our country has received countless recommendations from European Commission to reform its administrative system and improve the implementation capacity, it has failed to do so, \r\n \r\n Furthermore, this research highlights that for the efficient absorption of European funds in the near future, namely the Security Action for Europe (SAFE) program (2026-2030), it is imperative for Romania to develop a strong public administration characterized by a low level of corruption, a strong rule of law and an effective regulatory framework. \r\n