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The Lifting Idempotent Property ($LIP$) of ideals in commutative rings inspired the study of Boolean lifting properties in the context of other concrete algebraic structures ($MV$-algebras, commutative l-groups, $BL$-algebras, bounded distributive lattices, residuated lattices,etc.), as well as for some types of universal algebras (C. Muresan and the author defined and studied the Congruence Boolean Lifting Property ($CBLP$) for congruence modular algebras). A lifting ideal of a ring $R$ is an ideal of $R$ fulfilling $LIP$. In a recent paper, Tarizadeh and Sharma obtained new results on lifting ideals in commutative rings. The aim of this paper is to extend an important part of their results to congruences with $CBLP$ in semidegenerate congruence modular algebras. The reticulation of such algebra will play an important role in our investigations (recall that the reticulation of a congruence modular algebra $A$ is a bounded distributive lattice $L(A)$ whose prime spectrum is homeomorphic with Agliano's prime spectrum of $A$). Almost all results regarding $CBLP$ are obtained in the setting of semidegenerate congruence modular algebras having the property that the reticulations preserve the Boolean center. The paper contains several properties of congruences with $CBLP$. Among the results we mention a characterization theorem of congruences with $CBLP$. We achieve various conditions that ensure $CBLP$. Our results can be applied to a lot of types of concrete structures: commutative rings, $l$-groups, distributive lattices, $MV$-algebras, $BL$-algebras, residuated lattices, etc.

The extremely fragile balance of the Romanian labour market is severely affected by the crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and by the sudden and almost general deterioration of the macroeconomic context and the business environment. The present study aims to argue that, in times of crisis, such as the current one, the labour market policies need to be varied but also synergistic, in order to stimulate employment and capitalize the potential of each category, so as to contribute to the recovery of the country's macroeconomic and financial framework. Despite the Government's anti-crisis and economic support measures, in the short term, the Romanian labour market is facing the unemployment rate increase, at least in 2020, as a result of the restrictions in many activities, exacerbating the vulnerabilities of the employed population structure described in the study. The analyses carried out revealed that, in Romania, the crisis affected practically all the members of society, but in a disproportionate manner, the most exposed being the vulnerable groups, namely people in the "grey" or informal area of the economy, those working in the most affected sectors and workers with low qualification, many deprived of the needed protection and social assistance. In the context of efforts to identify ways to reduce the distortions generated by the crisis, the integration of social security systems with social assistance can be a viable solution. As activities resume, the labour market tensions are expected to be mitigated both by labour market-specific measures, including those presented in the study, and at the macroeconomic level, adapted to the post-COVID-19 restructuring of the economy, with the necessary policy support at central and local level, including in terms of employment.

In recent years, the labour market in Romania became more and more tense, with growing labour shortages affecting the development of many important sectors. This paper is focusing on the labour market imbalances, specifying the main landmarks of labour shortages and highlighting their conditions of emergence and the generating factors for each type of their manifestation. Even if some imbalances has been reported long before, the existence and persistence of quantitative and qualitative labour shortages in Romania became obvious only recently, also under the circumstances of the warning signals of academia and business environment. Among the causes of this growing labour shortages and mismatches are the unfavourable demographic trends, the massive external migration of the skilled and high skilled labour force, the low level of the participation rate, the high inactivity rate, the quantitative and qualitative discrepancies between the supply of the education system and the real needs of the labour market, the size of undeclared work that continues to distort the labour market, the lack of cooperation between employers and institutions with responsibilities in the field employment and professional training of adults. The case study conducted on the IT&C sector, a growing sector in Romania, led to the conclusion that, despite its was claimed by the decision makers as strategic priority, the labour shortages in the sector remains high, being likely to maintain in the near future in the absence of promoting adequate support measures. Under the circumstances of Coronavirus global outbreak early 2020, the effects on the labour market in Romania are difficult to predict, the quantitative and qualitative shortages alleviation depending on the ability of the authorities to manage the crisis and to find the right responses, including by redirecting the returned migrant workers towards the domestic labour market.

The labour market in Romania is under the pressure of divergent factors, at the intersection of the labour demand and supply determinants. This paper is focusing on quantitative and qualitative analysis of the labour market in Romania, trying to identify its imbalances and to find ways for their mitigation considering the main trends, including the European labour market developments. From the perspective of the labour supply, despite massive emigration, is found that Romania still has an important human potential including an unused workforce reserve, but the performances of the education and training should improve for increasing the quality of competences and skills needed on the labour market. Looking at the demand for labour force, although under the circumstances of the lack of information for an accurate assessment, starting with 2012, as a general trend, the number of jobs created exceeded the number of job vacancies, the new created companies, with a higher degree of technology and more competitive, having significantly contributed to the increase in the employment rate. However, imbalances between the labour demand and supply have emerged and are growing, likely to become a severe obstacle hindering the development of Romania in the medium and long term.

Based on more recent research and evidence, including declassified information regarding the communist period in Romania, the study focuses on examining the 1980s foreign debt crisis context, its determinants and consequences, the impact of internal and external factors, intending to provide an image closer to reality of this dramatic episode. The global economy faced a severe economic and financial crisis at the beginning of the 1980s, when more than 30 developing countries entered default or restructuring on the sovereign debt. In the case of Romania, the impact of the foreign debt crisis triggered in 1981-1982 proved to be extremely hard, worsened by the overlap between the internal vulnerabilities accumulated in previous decades and the external shock coming from the major changes in the global economic, financial and geopolitical context at the end of 1979. The FED monetary policy at that time has led to the explosive rise in interest rates of the outstanding loans contracted from international commercial banks, to which Romania was highly indebted. The decision of simple-minded Ceausescu to liquidate the foreign debt and other serious errors concerning the crisis management had a destructive impact on the Romanian economy, which degenerated in a system crisis ended with its implosion in December 1989. Some consequences of the foreign debt crisis were felt also afterwards, slowing down significantly the pace of Romania's transition to the market economy.

The study found that, during the early post-accession years, Romania failed toattract European funds, at least to the same extent to the national contribution at thecommunity budget, registering a net expenditure as an EU member. The determinants ofincreasing EU funds absorption rate are related, among other, to the availability of internalresources for projects co-financing, adequate administrative capacity at central and locallevels, appropriate inter-institutional coordination and public-private partnerships, highskills and motivation of human resources working in operational programs ManagementAuthorities and intermediary bodies. Activating these determinants could be an opportunityfor sustaining economic growth of Romania and recovering the development gap, which issupposed to alleviate also the adverse effects of international financial crisis on EU countries.

The paper focuses on the issue of regional resilience against the recent financial and economic crisis in the case of Romania, taking the county as territorial unit of observation. Based on the idea that the shock of a crisis impact spreads asymmetrically in the territory, with different contagion effects, the study advance a new approach of the speed and duration of GDP decline recovering. Data analysis showed that, at macroeconomic level, Romania has not proved resilient to the crisis impact, after two years of recession and a recovery period of 4 years succeeding barely in 2014 to return to the GDP level achieved in 2008. The research highlighted the differentiated recovery duration of the economic decline in territory, in 2014 many counties having to recover in the coming years remained GDP gaps, up to 10 pp or even more. The study paid a specific attention to the crisis impact on employment, focusing on R&D sector as revealing the endogenous growth generating potential at county level.

The paper focuses on the sharp increase in the external debt level, both sovereign and private, threatening Romania’s financial stability, associated with weaknesses and risks arising from an unpredictable business environment and an unfavourable global and regional context. The study highlights inter-conditional ties between short-term and long-term debt, public and private debt, internal and external public debt. The increase in long-term external debt stock (more than two times during 2007-2013) has led to a significant rise in the related annual service (17.8% of GDP in 2013), deteriorating the financial framework of Romania and the growth perspectives. Excessive levels of the external indebtedness and critical debt-to-GDP ratio are recorded in the case of Romania as compared to international standards and national specific, exposing the debt position to higher default risk. Despite large external borrowings, due to the lack of their efficiency, the results, in terms of economic development and competitiveness gains, are much below expectations. The easiness of appeal to external borrowings by successive governments and the debt rollover year by year contradicts the principle of intergenerational ethics.

Aims To describe atrial fibrillation (AF) management in member countries of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) and to verify cardiology practices against guidelines. Methods and results Among 182 hospitals in 35 countries, 5333 ambulant and hospitalized AF patients were enrolled, in 2003 and 2004. AF was primary or secondary diagnosis, and was confirmed on ECG in the preceding 12 months. Clinical type of AF was reported to be first detected in 978, paroxysmal in 1517, persistent in 1167, and permanent in 1547 patients. Concomitant diseases were present in 90% of all patients, causing risk factors for stroke to be also highly prevalent (86%). As many as 69% of patients were symptomatic at the time of the survey; among asymptomatic patients, 54% were previously experienced symptoms. Oral anticoagulation was prescribed in 67 and 49% of eligible and ineligible patients, respectively. A rhythm control strategy was applied in 67% of currently symptomatic patients and in 44% of patients who never experienced symptoms. Conclusion This survey provides a unique snapshot of current AF management in ESC member countries. Discordance between guidelines and practice was found regarding several issues on stroke prevention and antiarrhythmic therapy.

The research focuses on several challenges on short, medium and long term bank lending in Romania, taking into consideration a series of economic and social criteria as well as different types of loans. At the same time, special attention is paid to the post-accession into the EU impact and to the financial and economic effects of the international crisis. The main results of the research are expected to point out the necessity of structural improvements in the field of long-term loans contributing to investments boosting as a vital prerequisite for Romania’s economy sustainable development. Meanwhile it is worth mentioning the intensity and duration of the crisis in Romania compared to other developed and emerging EU member countries. The importance of addressing causes that hinder the monetary policy transmission channels, lending sustainable re-launching, more involvement of banks in European funds absorption and growing market share for banks with domestic capital, are highlighted as main conclusions resulting from the study.

The financial execution of EU allocations for the programming period 2007-2013 has shown a SCF absorption rate of only 27% in the case of Romania. The study reveals that, compared to selected EU Member States, most of them CEE countries, this represents the lowest level of absorption rate. The analysis of this last one position has highlighted causes related to the system of European funds management and accessing, common or specific to different stages and levels, but also a series of outer factors, mainly the legislative barriers and the global crisis persistent effects. Because of the lack of satisfactory assessments of the real SCF impact by using econometric models and simulations, the study suggests addressing this issue by studying the relationship between SCF and relevant macroeconomic indicators. Even Romania stands for a net beneficiary position relative to the EU budget, the macroeconomic impact of SCF has not been significant. The amount of 5.1 billion EUR reimbursed to Romania, cumulated during the period 2007-2013 represented only 2% of the GFCF and 0.6% of the GDP. It was found that the main macroeconomic indicators in terms of employment, foreign investments, external debt and public debt have deteriorated over the period, the absorption of SCF having not the strength to counterbalance these negative trends, due mainly to the persistence of the crisis effects. As concerns the exercise 2014-2020, the lessons learned from the previous programming period, along with addressing Romania’s economic vulnerabilities and under favorable circumstances of the international context, a significant improvement of SCF absorption rate is expected, increasing also their macroeconomic impact.

The balance of the financial exercise 2007-2013 revealed an absorption rate of 27% from the total EU Budget allocations for SCF in the case of Romania. This ratio, the lowest among CEE countries, has been under the influence of various causes, within the system of SCF accessing i.e. at the level of beneficiaries and MAs on different stages of absorption and also outer causes, mainly the legal framework weaknesses and the global crisis effects. The study highlighted the net beneficiary position of Romania relative to the EU budget, but the macroeconomic impact of SCF was found as having rather poor significance. The relevant macroeconomic indicators have registered unfavorable trends during post-crisis period, mainly in terms of foreign investments, external debt and public debt, which could not be mitigated by the SCF inflows. For the period 2014-2020, the new approach of the EU Cohesion Policy, more result-oriented, along with the lessons learned by Romania could address most of factors that are meant to improve the ESI funds absorption, a significant impact being also expected.

In the case of Romania, a sharp deterioration of the fiscal framework strength has been observed during post-crisis period, the public debt-to-GDP ratio currently reaching around 40%, thus doubling as compared to 2008. The structural analysis of government debt portfolio highlighted the main drivers of excessive public indebtedness and the increase in refinancing (rollover) risk on short term, which is supposed to overlap with the exchange rate and interest rate risks on medium and long term. Several indicators of Romania’s debt sustainability are already on the warning levels edge which requires appropriate policies focusing on economic growth recovery, fiscal consolidation ongoing, increasing capacity of generating budgetary revenues, public debt management improvement.

The interrelation research-development-innovation has proved crucial for raising the economic competitiveness. The comparative analysis of Romania’competitiveness in the global and European context highlights significant gaps as compared with advanced countries, mainly in R&D intensity, quality of scientific research, innovative entrepreneurship, intellectual assets. Achieving the target of 2% of GDP for R&D spending in 2020 became a challenge for Romania, radical improvements in RDI strategy consistence, growing business sector investments, enforcing innovative capacity, increasing the EU funds absoption rate being needed. The paper is focusing on discrepancies size for the above mentioned indicators as well as the main ways and economic mechanisms of solving the problems and dilemmas which Romania is facing with on different time horizons.

Caused by the lack of an international financial regulations framework and under the circumstances of markets volatility persistence, the global financial balances deteriorated during the postcrisis period. The bail-out of the banking system by public or multilateral intervention instead of leading to the financial re-balancing has transferred a systemic risk to the sovereign level, mainly in the case of advanced countries. Addressing high public debts toward sustainable levels by the budgetary constraints of austerity programs has proved to hamper the economic growth, increasing, in fact, the sovereign risk.

Under the circumstances of the global crisis effects on risk appetite of international investors, the net FDI flows in Romania registered a sharp fall in post-crisis period to levels of 1/5 as compared to 2008. Even if the current account deficits of Romania have significantly decreased in the post-crisis years, their coverage by FDI has been reduced below 1/3. The financial performances of foreign companies operating in Romania have worsened, which, besides the erosion of comparative advantages, is increasing the risk of closing businesses and of capital outflows. Taking into account also the major contribution of companies with foreign capital to Romania’s exports (about 70%) the recovery of FDI inflows, helped by adequate measures in order to regain the investor’s confidence and to improve the business environment has become of crucial importance for the perspectives of the country’s external financial stability on medium and long run.

Over time, foreign investments were the decisive factor contributing to the development of nations, but were the hardest hit during economic recessions. Under the circumstances of the world economy globalization and of the quasi-liberalization of international capital movements, leading to a high degree of financial markets interdependence, the impact of the crisis triggered in 2008 on FDI has been severe: decreased investment ability of companies, both on account of restricting access to financial resources and declining corporate profits; increased costs of financing on volatile international capital markets; reduced risk appetite of investors; deteriorated business climate; re-location of investments portfolio and the pressure of sovereign debts.