CURRENT COORDINATES OF ROMANIAN VULNERABLE GROUPS IN THE EUROPEAN CONTEXT

Often, in European Union and Romanian legal documents or in research report s, the term ‘vulnerable group’ is used similarly to disadvantaged, marginalized, excluded or risk group; all these concepts are related to the broader phenomenon of poverty. The common sense for vulnerability is ‘weakness’, ‘lack of defense’, ‘lack of means’. Vulnerable groups are groups without support, which are often in a chronic state of poverty, being unable to take advantage of opportunities or to defend themselves against problems that may arise. This paper presents a brief analysis of the structure and size of vulnerable groups in the European Union and an analysis of their particularities for Romania. The paper also proposes a systematic treatment, but not of all the consequences of the global crisis on Romanian vulnerable groups. The main features of the Roma minority and vulnerable women from Romania, their demographic profile and spatial distribution, the employment policies for these vulnerable groups are highlighted.