THE COMPETITIVENESS OF THE ROMANIAN ECONOMY IN THE CONTEXT OF EUROPEAN UNION ACCESSION. SPECIAL CONSIDERATIONS REGARDING AGRICULTURE AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT

Roxana Paraschiv, G. Mursa

Abstract
Member of the European Union, Romania faces huge competitiveness problems which affect the capacity of taking advantage of its new status. This paper aims at identifying Romania's major competitiveness difficulties, with a special focus on the agriculture and rural development in order to find the best solution for improving the current situation. The methodology of our study included both statistical analysis methods and sociologic analysis methods. We had a large survey of economic literature on competitiveness, agriculture and rural development matters, we analyzed the European and Romanian statistics, as well as other studies and strategies concerning Romania's economic situation. We notice that, despite pre-accession funds and some other efforts to improve Romania's competitiveness, our country possess, at this moment, not even a single competitive advantage on the European market and the situation of agriculture and rural economy is particularly difficult. The paper details these problems, the impact of European integration on Romania's competitiveness and especially the impact of the common agricultural policy on Romanian agriculture and rural economy, also trying to offer solution for surpassing these difficulties.

Key words: rural development, competitiveness, European integration