LOCAL ACTION GROUPS, A SOLUTION TO THE RURAL DEVELOPMENT OF ROMANIA

For Romania, the rural area represent a difficult problem because it has a high share. During the communist era, a forcefully reduction of the rural share was undertaken through various means, most often destructive (Ailenei, 2001). Even the transition to a market economy has failed to improve the situation because, in recent years, the urban-rural migration flows have surpassed the rural-urban flows making the too large rural share problem to block the structural changes needed on one hand to modernize the economy, and on the other hand for the European integration (Constantin,1996). If we consider other factors such as access to education, quality of life, the differences between rural and urban economic and social infrastructure, than the factors that slows down economic development in Romania are even more obvious, and the importance of regional development gains an even greater significance. The regional development is of particular importance also in terms of ensuring territorial cohesion, which in turn enhances regional growth. At the local level, ensuring the rural-urban continuum is given by the connection quality and the intensity of economic exchanges between localities. In this context the Leader initiative of the European Union (EU) represents an important opportunity to achieve and strengthen the rural-urban continuum in Romania. This paper analyzes the current directions of rural development, making a comparison between the European rural development and rural development in Romania. As an argument of the current direction of the European regional development the Leader initiative is presented in terms of both its development and the objectives pursued. As a conclusion, the paper argues in favors of local action groups (LAG), the main vehicle of Leader, as a solution for a sustainable rural development in Romania.