EURINT (Dec 2022)
THE IMPACT OF THE EUROPEAN FUNDING ON THE ROMANIAN SMEs. CASE STUDY ON THE REGIONAL OPERATIONAL PROGRAM 2007-2013
Abstract
Romania's accession to the EU has allowed access to significant financial instruments for economic and social development. Their main role was to boost job creation, economic growth, and investments across Europe, with particular focus on the least developed regions and in sectors with growth potential, and Romania subscribes to this goal with all its regions. One of the most important pillars in economic development is to encourage the growth and development of SME's, which have significant economic and social effects in terms of increasing employment, encouraging innovation and stimulating competitiveness on the European market. During the 2007-2013 budgetary period, one of the main programs including financial support for enterprises was the Regional Operational Programme, through which European funds were allocated for the creation and development of microenterprises in the urban areas. The aim of this paper is to analyse the impact of the these funds on the economic performance of the urban Romanian SMEs. It was evaluated how these microenterprises performed once they benefitted from the European funding, and if and to what extent these financing instruments contributed to their growth and development.
