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Trade is at the centre of Europe’s model of economic prosperity and competitiveness. As stated in the new Trade Policy Strategy set out by the European Commission (2021), the trade policy has a key role to play in the recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. Meanwhile, this role was emphasised even better by the effects derived from the war in Ukraine. As the pandemic hit in 2020, the growth drivers of the EU’s economy relented, among which the external trade, putting million jobs at risk and leading to rise in unemployment and to depression of economic activity, while many companies had to close down. Competitiveness is a term which increased in significance in the last few decades. Trade competitiveness and, especially, export competitiveness is one of the most valuable variables a country must improve in order to increase its overall competitive position among nations and also the welfare of its citizens. The export statistics of many EU’s economies changed since the COVID-19 crisis and later, the war stroke. The research questions this paper addresses are: what is the extent of these changes in which sectors? Have they come to an end or the process of recovery has already started within the EU? What effects has the war in Ukraine onto the EU exports competitiveness? Are there any chances for the EU to maintain its exports competitiveness after these crises? What is to be one and what measures to be taken to recover? After introductory theoretical remarks and a brief literature review followed by a survey of various techniques to measure export competitiveness, the paper shifts its focus on statistical data and analyse how much damage has the pandemic and nowadays, the war caused to the EU’s export competitiveness, and which EU Member States were the most affected, based on statistical data analysis and other various indicators.

This paper analyses the importance of stakeholders’ actions on the effectiveness of the European competition policy. The national governments, European decision-makers, advisory institutions and civil society take the form of interest groups that have expectations, invest resources and advocate on competition policy. The paper follows the process of adopting a specific strategy (insider/outsider), depending on the type of the interest group and it divides the organizations in those with ”strong ties” and ”weak ties”. The goal of each interest group is to arrive at the main European competition law authority, the European Commission. As it has the full power to investigate cases and manage the process, as well as implementing decisions based on proposals, influencing this institution represents a real challenge for the stakeholders. In this process, some relevant aspects are the perfect timing for lobby, the dimension of the lobbying coalitions and also the capacity of attracting supporters of the cause. Interest groups do not have equal amount of influence power nor the resources but they do change the policy, according to their particular interests, by choosing the right strategies, partnerships and means to influence the decision-makers.

The competition policy represents one of the most important pillars of cooperation between EU Member States, it influenced the design of the European Single Market and it facilitates integration. Even though it shapes the distribution of capital and the investments all over the EU space, the policy is not well-known and even less understood, as it has been built through a complex process, the aim of this paper being to analyse its sinusoidal evolution. In order to better follow its goals, the present article is trying to frame each step of the evolution in one of the following theories of economic integration: neo-functionalism, intergovernmentalism or multi-level governance.

This paper is about social crisis and sets to give a dimension for this non- effective current. The paper is addressed to all persons interested in this domain, especially for those that work in this sector (non-governmental sector, third sector) and that need to have a better perspective on the situation. The methodology was based on self documentation which involved a wide range of materials: reports, case studies, paper works, articles, specific sites, European Union guides. This paper underlines the bad influence of the social crisis on sustainable development. My research includes both quantitative and qualitative dates; the ideas are embraced by my own convictions on the topic and tend to express also my beliefs on the matter. The added value of the paper is provided by the elements brought together: the topic, which, as common as can be, has a critical importance for the economy, blended with new information related to European Union Funds abortion and statistic dates regarding the work market in our country. The paper starts with an introduction that offers general information about the topic, a short background on the next headlines. As follows, each headline surprises with punctual elements of social crisis: determinant causes, solutions found, institutions involved, conclusions. The results of the paper shows that institutions in Romania are concerned about this situation and fight to bring out the best solutions, even if community is not totally prepared to accept it. Besides Romanian institutions, we have the support of the European Commission, through the European Union Funds. The Commission brings also the know-how of the other European Union Countries that confronted with these situations and, in better conditions know, sets here good practices within the projects they finance. This paper should be read and acknowledged as a base for the social economy development and it aims to create an interest for more persons in contributing to the strategic growth of the country and people.

Services are the most important contributor to the GDP and also the most important job generator. Countries development, usually, is based on the services sector. The present paper is aiming to highlight the influence of the number of active enterprises in services on exports. The paper is based on a model generated using data provided by Eurostat, for 25 EU countries and for 4 services categories. Generated in Eviews 4.1, the model is correctly specified, with a R-squared value of 0.65, and revealed a validated influence of the number of enterprises active in Wholesale and retail trade; repair of motor vehicles, motorcycles and personal and household goods and in Real estate, renting and business activities on exports.

This paper analyzes the Romanian absorption capacity of the funds allocated through the REGIO programme, which is part of ERDF programme. Within the paper are presented the concept of absorption capacity and several opinions regarding its main composing elements. Also the Regio programme, its main axis and its budget is briefly presented. In the last chapter of the analysis a thorough analysis of the implementation of REGIO in the Romanian North-West Region was carried out and several causes for the low absorption of European Founds have been identified.. The process of improving the absorption capacity of European Funds is still at the beginning in Romania and will certainly become an important issue over the following years at all levels of the Romanian society and at the level of the European Funding Authorities as well.

The paper is an evaluation of EU regional policy. It asks whether cohesion programmes contribute to the reduction of differences. In the first part of the study the results of three different methodological approaches are briefly examined to analyse effects. The answer to the question is not at all unambiguous, which is why the second half of the paper attempts to find those factors which may cause the regional policy of the EU to fail to achieve its desired objectives. According to the literature review these factors are (1) the crowding out effect, (2) the existence of rent-seeking and moral hazard, (3) the counterbalancing effect of national policies, (4) a concentration of economic activities (mainly industries representing high added value), and (5) the short time frame. Finally the study establishes those preconditions which, when present, can be considered necessary and sufficient for the redistributed funds to initiate growth.

Romania, as a country with a low R&D level, in order to converge to the living standards of western economies, is doomed to foster private investments in applied research and experimental development. Thus, it is critical to study what are the main objectives for innovation at organizational level. This paper investigates the most important objectives for innovation in Romania and in the European Union, aiming to find out what are the main challenges innovative enterprises have to face. The general approach is focused on the analysis of the frequency with which these objectives occur, both at general and structural levels. Therefore we have extracted the most important three highly important objectives for innovation, both in Romania and EU: improving the quality of goods or services, the need to increase the range of goods or services and the entering new markets or increase the market share. All these three are positively correlated with the size (number of employees) of the organization. One of our findings underlines that there are fewer objectives in EU then in Romania, both at general and structural levels. Such a situation suggesting that the differences derive from two main sources: Romania has more needs, thus the enterprises target more goals, and there is a lack of managerial know-how that leads to non-prioritized objectives for innovation. Also, we identified an asymmetry, consisting in the fact that in EU, medium sized enterprises are more likely to act as the small ones, as opposed to the Romanian context. R&D and innovation component should be in the center of the Romanian strategy for convergence and competitiveness strengthening, treating differently the SMEs in order to foster innovation in a sustainable manner, through the encouragement of private enterprises to engage in partnerships for R&D an innovation. Also there is a critical need for governmental intervention in building facilities for the modern business infrastructures (business incubators, industrial parks, clusters, and competitive poles), creating a viable VC market for innovative projects, stimulating the creation of new SMEs and fostering internationalization of the local enterprises.

Economic integration refers to trade unification between different states , and one of its most important aspects is liberalisation of capital movement. In this paper is presented a brief evolution of economic integration cases focusing on one of the most integrated economies European Union. We concentrate on the participation of foreign investors in different economies and their impact, taking the example of Central and Eastern European Countries and their markets. Also , the level of influence that direct investments in capital markets entails on the Stock Exchange evolution is presented for the case of Romania .