Regionalization, Competitiveness and innovation. The case of Romania

It is known that as of 1998 Romania has started a Top-Down process of regionalization. The main purpose of this process was to subdivide the national territory according to the criteria of the NUTS classification used in the European Union both for statistical purposes and as a dimension to access EU fundings. Within this framework the paper aims to assess the development of the competitiveness of the “new” Romanian regions with a particular focus on innovation seen as a determining factor. For this purpose are mainly used the data shown in the last report on the Regional Competitive Index, by making comparisons with the different European countries and their regions. It emerges that even in a context of progress towards a higher competitiveness, regions in Romania show a substantial deficit in terms of innovation. This condition seems to be indicative of a structural weakness of the innovation process related to both the regional economic structure and to the system of R & D. To keep up with the other European regional economies is crucial that significant efforts are made in the direction of promoting innovation and thus competitiveness also to improve integration in the dynamics of the European economy.