EU Structural Instruments–Key Component in Improving the Romanian Macroeconomic Stability?

AbstractRomania is experiencing a rather paradoxical situation: while its balance of payments reflects a severe need of financing and capitalisation, the first EU Alert Mechanism Report demonstrates the vulnerable macroeconomic external position of Romania and the EU allocation for the 2007-2013 programming period potentially provided a significant amount of money for investments, around 29 billion euro through Structural Funds, the level of absorption, after five years since the beginning of the current financial framework, remains extremely low. The paper focuses on the main Romanian macroeconomic imbalances, the current account balance, international investment position and on the most important sources for financing investments and development, the EU financial structural instruments: ERDF and Cohesion Fund