ROMANIA`S ABSORPTION POTENTIAL OF E.U. FUNDS FOR RURAL DEVELOPMENT – A REGIONAL ANALYSIS

The post-accession programs supported mainly by the European Union create a better chance for the modernization of the agricultural sector and the rural area in Romania. However the funding process depends highly on the absorption capacity of the potential beneficiaries. The paper focuses on the regional distribution of financial allocations for rural development, especially for agricultural holdings, by correlating them to the determinant factors of the absorption capacity. The distribution of selected applications at regional NUTS3 level reveals that poorer regions with high employment in agriculture have no advantage in the access to development funds.