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The main aim of the article is to analyse the economic convergence between the NUTS 3 level units (counties) in Romania during a period of intensive economic growth (1999-2011). The main added value of the paper consists in the measurement of the multi-dimensional convergence and in adding a spatial dimension to the convergence analysis by testing the spatial autocorrelation. We have found no economic convergence for the analysed period, the economic growth process being polarized by the capital region. But in contrast, we have evidenced a social convergence process, starting with 2008 for the education component of the HDI and starting even earlier, in 2004, for the life expectancy component. In addition, we have tested the convergence club hypothesis, which has evidenced the club convergence phenomena in Romania as well.

The objective of this study is to present and analyze the regional and local distribution of the funds allocated by the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD), European fund that finances rural development in Romania, in the post-accession period. This financing instrument was created by the European Union with the order to continue the main directions of investment of Special Pre-Accession Programme for Agriculture and Rural Development (SAPARD). As a member state of the European Union, Romania observes the principles of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) while the development of the Romanian rural area for the programming period 2007-2013 is supported by the European Community through the National Rural Development Programme (RDP). This approach pays special attention to improving the quality of life in rural areas and the diversification of the rural economy because local communities in Romania have experienced some changes in this period, while accessing EAFRD funds contributed to increased regional disparities between developed and poor areas.

Health infrastructure is one of the weaknesses of socio-economic development in Romania and in other European states. In order to get a better picture of the Romanian health system issues, this paper analyzes a number of statistical indicators considered representative for the national and European health infrastructure for a 20 years period, between 1990 and 2010. Our paper has three main objectives: (a) to identify the main trends for health infrastructure in some of the European Union countries; (b) to describe the evolution of the health system in Romania, the comparative situation at the European level as well as regional level indicators dynamics; (c) to overview the Regional Operational Program in Romania, how much does it help the regional health infrastructure in our country. At the European level, there is a constant decrease in the number of hospital beds. For this indicator, Romania has slightly higher values than the European average. We must mention that the hospital beds indicator offers limited information on health infrastructure which also includes medical equipment and specific devices and practices. The number of hospitals in Romania increased with 18.9% during the last 20 years (1990-2010). During the observed timeline, the number of hospitals in Romania had a constant positive evolution at regional level. The number of doctors in hospitals has an increasing trend at the local as well as at the international level. Romania has a number of doctors twice lower than the European average (3.6 doctors for one thousand inhabitants). The Regional Operational Program (ROP) has a limited influence in achieving the objectives stated in Applicants Guide for Priority Axis 3. Major Intervention Area 3.1. This happens because supporting infrastructure improvements will not create institutional modernization. The financial contribution through ROP will result in the modernization of 11% of the existing hospitals in Romania.

Rural development, namely the LEADER program, plays an important role in reducing regional disparities in catching up backward regions not only in Hungary but also in Romania. The study, or the lecture, is going to focus on those essential elements in which member States have wide competence and the different decision making options basically affect and even determine the success of the implementation. In case of the LEADER program, the definition of the demarcation criteria of geographic coverage, size, form of organization, planning, staff procedures, and various community programs can be regarded as such element. The presentation and knowledge of the Hungarian experience can contribute to a more successful implementation of the Romanian LEADER or rural development program and to avoiding the errors that have occurred in the Hungarian program.

In the following paper aims at studying the evolution of the population size in the Apuseni Mountains during 1880 – 2008, on different spatial scales. From the second half of the 20th century, the area has recorded a continual decrease of the demographic potential, accompanied by the deterioration of the age group structures because of the increase of the migratory effect. Following the same downward trend, different subregional evolutions determined by social and economic factors can be highlighted on the LAU1 scale (counties) and at the scale of three altitudinal-delimited areas (as the expression of the increasing limitations of natural agrarian factors). At the LAU2 scale (communes and towns), on the same decreasing trend, positive dynamic of the population appears in some towns of the area. However, we found the most diverse evolutions at the settlement level. In this study, we cover the demographic evolution of the villages that are commune centres and villages with population below 50 residents. Both categories highlight spatial and functional transformations that have occurred and are to take place in the rural mountains.

The abolishment of the communist regime, the establishment of a democratic legal and institutional system brought important changes in the development of the regional economy of Romania. The old – from an economic point of view – differentiating factors have lost some of their importance, mainly the level of industrialization, which, in the past, was used to measure economic development. In addition, other factors came forward, that correlate more with the economic capacity, but, nowadays, their positive effect can only be increased by the combination of several other factors: foreign investments, as an indicator of regional attractiveness, regional GDP, the level of personal income, and the appreciation of human resources. Today, in the interest of enhancing the competitiveness of the regions a special role is reserved for entrepreneurial activity, the strength of the SME sector, the role of foreign working capital in the local economy, but also the territorial concentration of R&D centers. The study focuses on some aspects of disparities regarding the regional economic structure.

The so called Visegrad countries have different regional planning approach and tradition, but thanks to this colourful pattern, Romanian regional planning may learn from results gained by analyzing the current 2007-2013 programming period context. The paper argues that there is a major need for a detailed comparative analysis in this respect in favour of preparing planning capacities for the period after 2014.

The regional problem is always a present one and regional development that involves the elimination of regional disparities is present as a fashionable phrase, but also as an effective process within the territory of the eight regions of development. These have no juridical status but they work towards a regional development, through the elimination of the intra-regional disparities (among the counties that are part of a region) and the inter-regional ones. The regions of development – formed out of counties – do not have administrative status, nor do they have legislative or executive bodies, but they coordinate projects for regional development. Following their example, the voluntary associations at inferior levels of the regions resulting in the so-called “microregions” are now more and more common. The present study aims to analyze the way this new notion, “microregion”, is understood in Romania, by giving examples of such microregions and their scopes and it also wants to show how these benevolent associations at a microregional level serve the aim of eliminating the regional disparities – in fact, microregional disparities.

The economic downturn triggered by the economic crisis was installed in Romania in 2008, stopping the economic growth process. However, the impact of the financial turbulence presented asymmetrical effects on regional level, both in terms of GDP per capita and in terms of employment rate. The aim of present article is to analyze how regional economies reacted in this context and to assess the impact of the crisis on intra-regional disparities in Romania. From the methodological point of view, the research involves using panel data analysis tools that can provide evidence amongst the degree to which the crisis has induced a process of economic convergence between regions or increased regional disparities, according to Williamson's hypothesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents the actual state and condition of territorial inequalities at the Romanian-Hungarian border region, which shows - at present - an evident advantage of the Hungarian side, from the point of view of complex socio-economical aspects. This advantage is especially outstanding for the Hungarian side in the field of infrastructural supply (drinking water, natural gas, and public sewage networks), but it is valid for some characteristics of human capital, too, (above all, with regard to the illiteracy rate and the proportion of highly skilled persons with bachelor degree). Despite these difficulties, these inequalities are not insurmountable and should not affect efficient cross-border cooperation between the two countries. This regional inventory facilitates the evaluation of the starting-point of this kind of cooperation and also depicts some aspects of the interregional cooperation of the four counties north of the Romanian-Hungarian border region which belong to the Carpathian Euroregion.

Regional disparities can be explored from many aspects, however, most researchers agree in that due to political and economic changes, the former trend of decreasing regional disparities turned back and started to increase rapidly. In the early 2000s, a new structure with more competitive, more innovative areas and also with lagging settlements and areas seem to emerge. As result of the differentiation processes of the past two decades, in comparison with the EU member states, Hungary has the largest gap in GDP per capita among its regions. A little more than 50% of the Hungarian micro-regions have disadvantaged conditions for 30% of the population. Even now, in many studies and disputes, the under- and over-valuation of the role of highways are combined with each other. In our opinion, highways have strong, if not the strongest economic stimulus effect and settlements bordering highways formulate a single, coherent cluster. In general, these areas belong to the more developed areas of the country, which have better employment, income and infrastructure conditions. Currently, Hungary has strongly central and radial transport network. This structure hinders the formation and strengthening of large rural cities, as the capital city is the political and economic centre of the country, and its central location makes it easily accessible from the major part of the country. This state however does not help strengthening rural growth centres. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main aim of the article is to analyse the economic convergence between the NUTS 3 level units (counties) in Romania during a period of intensive economic growth (1999-2011). The main added value of the paper consists in the measurement of the multi-dimensional convergence and in adding a spatial dimension to the convergence analysis by testing the spatial autocorrelation. We have found no economic convergence for the analysed period, the economic growth process being polarized by the capital region. But in contrast, we have evidenced a social convergence process, starting with 2008 for the education component of the HDI and starting even earlier, in 2004, for the life expectancy component. In addition, we have tested the convergence club hypothesis, which has evidenced the club convergence phenomena in Romania as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The economic and social importance of administrative borders can be examined from the point of view of internal homogeneity and external heterogeneity of the delimited spatial units and of the effect on the intensity of spatial interactions. This paper deals with the first question. Hungarian county borders can be treated as strict limits from the administrative point of view. However, choropleth maps with county borders can suggest that county borders are strict limits for the social and economic indicators too. It is a conceptually interesting question, whether presenting data at county level is justified by the significant differences of various indicators along the county borders or if it is determined only by the availability of data. The aim of this study is to examine empirically the existence or non-existence of the county border effect by the example of spatial distribution of personal incomes in Hungary. The analysis is possible due to the availability of personal income data at the level of more than 3,000 Hungarian settlements. The results show that county borders have effect only in those cases where the border is determined by a physical geographical barrier, namely the Danube River and Lake Balaton. The settlements are more similar to the close settlements of a neighbouring county than to the average of its own county. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the socialist era, a significant developmental slope was settled along the Hungarian-Romanian border region, which separated a relatively more advanced Hungarian side from a backward Romanian one. Using a quantitative methodology, we try to identify the current territorial disparities on a lower spatial scale - namely on the level of communities - in order to highlight the presumably lagging-behind status of a narrower border strip. According to our hypothesis, this peripheral strip has a disadvantageous status mainly because of its increased isolation. The factorial analysis confirmed this fact on the Hungarian side; however, it was disproved on the Romanian side because of the presence of large cities and basic infrastructure networks on the proximity of the border. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Health infrastructure is one of the weaknesses of socio-economic development in Romania and in other European states. In order to get a better picture of the Romanian health system issues, this paper analyzes a number of statistical indicators considered representative for the national and European health infrastructure for a 20 years period, between 1990 and 2010. Our paper has three main objectives: (a) to identify the main trends for health infrastructure in some of the European Union countries; (b) to describe the evolution of the health system in Romania, the comparative situation at the European level as well as regional level indicators dynamics; (c) to overview the Regional Operational Program in Romania, how much does it help the regional health infrastructure in our country. At the European level, there is a constant decrease in the number of hospital beds. For this indicator, Romania has slightly higher values than the European average. We must mention that the hospital beds indicator offers limited information on health infrastructure which also includes medical equipment and specific devices and practices. The number of hospitals in Romania increased with 18.9% during the last 20 years (1990-2010). During the observed timeline, the number of hospitals in Romania had a constant positive evolution at regional level. The number of doctors in hospitals has an increasing trend at the local as well as at the international level. Romania has a number of doctors twice lower than the European average (3.6 doctors for one thousand inhabitants). The Regional Operational Program (ROP) has a limited influence in achieving the objectives stated in Applicants Guide for Priority Axis 3. Major Intervention Area 3.1. This happens because supporting infrastructure improvements will not create institutional modernization. The financial contribution through ROP will result in the modernization of 11% of the existing hospitals in Romania. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this study is to present and analyze the regional and local distribution of the funds allocated by the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD), European fund that finances rural development in Romania, in the post-accession period. This financing instrument was created by the European Union with the order to continue the main directions of investment of Special Pre-Accession Programme for Agriculture and Rural Development (SAPARD). As a member state of the European Union, Romania observes the principles of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) while the development of the Romanian rural area for the programming period 2007-2013 is supported by the European Community through the National Rural Development Programme (RDP). This approach pays special attention to improving the quality of life in rural areas and the diversification of the rural economy because local communities in Romania have experienced some changes in this period, while accessing EAFRD funds contributed to increased regional disparities between developed and poor areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current development of the European Union is based on the cohesion policy which focuses on the attenuation of regional disparities. For this purpose, the idea of growth poles emerged in Romania, and its role became more than familiar: the determination of an internal socio-economic cohesion. Polycentrism becomes a concept of territorial planning increasingly promoted. Development of growth poles aims to reduce the attraction force of large centres and to balance the location of activities generating functions across a territory. This was the idea that led to the formation of Iaşi Metropolitan Area, territorial unit that is intended to be the main regional centre of the North-East Region, thus polarizing the surrounding areas. Iaşi Growth Pole objectives are represented by economic competitiveness, the development of regional connectivity and the promotion of regional cooperation. One of the major assets of the growth pole in achieving these goals is the cross-border position near the eastern border of the European Union. This paper examines to what extent Iași Growth Pole can rise to the required standards, while the peripheral position seems to be rather a disadvantage and the uncertain functionality of the metropolitan area shows that the main problem remains the reduced economic competitiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Regional disparities are clearly a significant challenge to the new European construction. Disparities are often sources of instability but are also sources of antagonism and unrest. In the case of Muscelele Argeşului, in the past, it was a unitary area in terms of economic and social development, the two Middle Ages royal capitals keeping the balance of this area. After the 50s, the situation changed radically and the uneven development of the towns and villages began to widen. Some villages were collectivized; others were industrialized, while a third category was simply omitted from the development plans. As a consequence, development disparities evolved and became common during the 80s. After 1992, around the towns of Curtea de Argeş and Câmpulung, two relatively more developed regions emerged, while regions in the north and central part of the area were disadvantaged. Beginning with 2002, we are witnessing a reduction of disparities because the underdeveloped areas are increasing and incorporate previously developed areas. The area is starting to become a huge underdeveloped area and some of the main factors that led to this situation are the decay of the two poles of regional development and the closing of the coal mines. Today, the entire area is experiencing a rebirth and the entrepreneurial activities are playing an important role. The huge number of small hotels and accommodation establishments constructed in the west part of the area in the last five years, coupled with several investment projects in Curtea de Argeş, has led to the increased regional importance of the town to the expense of Câmpulung. In the meantime, former mining centres that where the engines of growth for the region became rather underdeveloped. The main cause of this is the fact that the region does not have perspectives and lacks the much needed entrepreneurial activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rural development, namely the LEADER program, plays an important role in reducing regional disparities in catching up backward regions not only in Hungary but also in Romania. The study, or the lecture, is going to focus on those essential elements in which member States have wide competence and the different decision making options basically affect and even determine the success of the implementation. In case of the LEADER program, the definition of the demarcation criteria of geographic coverage, size, form of organization, planning, staff procedures, and various community programs can be regarded as such element. The presentation and knowledge of the Hungarian experience can contribute to a more successful implementation of the Romanian LEADER or rural development program and to avoiding the errors that have occurred in the Hungarian program. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]