CONVERGENŢA NOMINALĂ ŞI CONVERGENŢA REALĂ: ROMÂNIA ÎN CONTEXTUL REGIONAL

As the accession date for the first wave of candidate countries is approaching, there are an increasing number of voices considering the Maastricht Criteria (nominal convergence) not enough as a prerequisite for integration. Obviously, after the assimilation of the first wave of candidates, which admittedly will not occur without economic difficulties for the EU, the hypothesis that the EU will put emphasis on the criteria of compatible economic structures (the real convergence) appears as a plausible scenario for the second wave of candidates including Romania. The present article provides a comparative analysis between Romania and other Central and Eastern European candidates regarding their competitiveness in terms of real convergence. In this regard, it considers that in the short term a strategic thinking for improving Romania’s real convergence has to be targeted on reducing inflation and increasing the GDP per capita. The article concludes that both objectives can be successfully accomplished, by a continuous policy of real appreciation of the national currency, as the examples of other candidate countries (e.g. Poland, Hungary) prove