FACTORS INFLUENCING THE ABSORPTION OF EU FUNDS FOR THE LAST MEMBERS STATES ECONOMY IN EUROPEAN UNION

Abstract

The absorption of European funds is widely seen as a way of economic growth and job creation through payments made from the EU budget as co-financing for eligible projects granted to EU member states. The article presents a study on the absorption of European funds in the last 3 states that entered the European Union for the last programming period 2021-2027 and investigates the determining factors of the absorption of European funds in Romania, Bulgaria and Croatia. The average absorption rate at the EU level is 68% at the end of 2022. The findings of the estimates of economic and human development on the absorption of European funds show us multiple negative influences of the independent variables due to the fact that the analysis was carried out on the new countries that entered the EU have recorded low absorption rates of European funds. Positive influences are observed in the case of Gross capital formation, Imports of goods and services, Expense and Human Capital Index, but some of the variables are statistically insignificant.

Keywords

• eu funds
• absorption
• economic development
• human development
• the last three eu states