Country report Romania - Work Package 1 Ex post evaluation of Cohesion Policy programmes 2007-2013, focusing on the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and the Cohesion Fund (CF)

After a sharp contraction during the crisis, the Romanian economy recovered quickly, showing reasonable growth from 2011 on as a result of strong exports and temporarily reduced imports. GDP growth averaged 3.6% a year in the 2014-15 period. Between 2007 and 2015, unemployment was contained at around 7%, below the EU27 average. The public deficit, which was nearly 10% of GDP in 2009, was reduced markedly to below 1% of GDP in 2015, after the support of three consecutive EU/IMF financial assistance programmes.

Regional disparities are dominated by the wide gap between the capital city region, Bucharest Ilfov, and the rest of the country. Over the programming period, socio-economic imbalances tended to widen across regions with the poorest regions, in particular the Nord-Est, Sud-Est and Sud-Vest Oltenia regions, experiencing constant large-scale emigration.

In total, support from the ERDF and Cohesion Fund amounted to EUR 15.4 billion over the period, equivalent to 25% of Government capital expenditure. Funding per head was around EUR 102 a year, the lowest level (along with Bulgaria) among the EU12 countries.