ROMANIA IN THE EU: AN INSTITUTIONALIST APPROACH TO POOR ECONOMIC DYNAMICS

The beginning of the 1990’s illustrated a reference moment for the former Soviet countries, inclusively for Romania, in all the hypostases admitted by the challenge of transition to market economy. Most of nations explored the complex reconversion process, which was intended to be a gradual opening to free market institutions. The long, agonizing metamorphoses applied to all social spheres was based on two fundamental objectives: restoring the democratic structures of societies and reinforcing the pillars of the market economy. Undoubtedly, the construction of institutional framework was the major challenge by far. Under such circumstances, social and institutional facelift remain responsible for the economic dynamics, especially for those states which joined the European Community. From this perspective, Romania might be considered a notable example of institutional failure, despite the EU membership. The inland cultural profile and the persistence of unhealthy principles or behaviors perpetuated over time from past generations are to be blamed for poor economic performance. So, the purpose of this paper is to offer an institutional analysis of Romania’s results in terms of economic dynamics after more than six years of EU membership, in order to assess its rank within the European Union area.