ALINA JURAVLE (GASLER), The Romanian Rural Areas in the Context of European Development Strategies

This article presents an analysis of the Romanian rural areas from the perspective of certain indicators related to agricultural economy, employment and the quality of human resources, insisting on several of the significant problems that are slowing down rural development in Romania. These problems are discussed in relation with the objectives and the impact of national and European development strategies.The EU strategic guidelines and objectives set as a main priority the increased competitiveness of the rural economy, especially of the agricultural economy, which corresponds to the specific needs of the "old" Member States (EU15), as reflecting a specific historical development path. In the national rural strategy, prioritizing competitiveness objectives to the detriment of market integration and modernization objectives proves to be inappropriate for the immediate challenges posed by the Romanian rural economy, where the vast majority of agricultural holdings are outside the commercial and production mechanisms of the market. This could explain the low values of implementation indicators for the national rural development plan (PNDR) measures and the low absorption rate of allocated funds and contracts concluded in relation to most measures.