A model for assessing Romania's real convergence based on distances and clusters methods

Accession into Euro Area for Eastern European Countries became a compulsory and a very demanding step. These new members should achieve specific condition that are called “nominal convergence” criteria and that are defined by Maastricht Treaty. The convergence level reflects how much these countries are prepared to face the challenges and threats of being included into a high competitive economic area. Many studies on nominal and real convergence have been developed lately. The present paper is aimed at testing the real convergence for selected Eastern European Countries, including Romania, based upon distances and clusters methodology