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In this paper, we investigated the extent to which the accession to the EU has had an effect on increasing the variety of exports of agri-food categories for two Eastern European countries, namely Romania and Bulgaria. We also assessed the impact of changes in the variety of exports of agri-food categories on the dynamics of the volume of exports of agri-food products for these two countries and used the entropy to measure the variability of exports of agri-food products by categories. The results confirm the important role played by related variety in increasing a country's long-term exports of agri-food products and show that the high concentration of exports on a small number of categories of agri-food products that include mostly agricultural raw materials cannot ensure a sustainable increase in the export of agri-food products for Romania. In the case of Bulgaria, the related variety has a positive impact on ensuring a sustainable increase in agri-food exports. The accession to the EU was an important factor for the increase of the exported agri-food goods for Romania while in the case of Bulgaria, the accession to the EU did not mark a positive or negative shock on the volume of exports of agri-food products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper develops some findings from the project entitled "Bulgarian-Romanian Area Identities: A Neighbourhood Study" (BRAINS), funded by the European Regional Development Fund under the auspices of the Romania-Bulgaria Trans-border Cooperation Programme 2007-2013, Priority Axis 3 - Economic and Social Development. More precisely, it aims to explore the manner in which the cross-border cooperation model perceived by the Romanian and Bulgarian citizens living in the cooperation area responds the current economic and social challenges. The main issue investigated is: does the local population - as a main actor in the Romanian-Bulgarian Neighbourhood Area (ROBULNA) - connect its aspirations with the realities, possibilities and potential of this area? The correlation degree between these two aspects is established starting from the project sampled data connected with the official data from the Romanian and Bulgarian 2011 censuses. The analysis relates and comments upon aspects regarding human capital, unemployment, economic structure and their distribution in ROBULNA, revealing fields of both convergent and divergent opinions, which enhance or, on the contrary, create difficulties in constructing an integrated cross-border cooperation action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]