Structural Funds for the Business Environment: The Illusion of Reducing Disparities

All the waves of enlargement of the European Union created challenges for the efficient functioning of the common market, but the expansions from 2004–2013 were completely atypical. The economic disparity between the new members and the community average, at the time of accession, was a huge one, which represented a unique challenge for the Regional Development Policy. More and more studies conducted in the countries that joined from 2004 to 2013 raise question marks regarding the efficiency of the Regional Development Policy and the Structural and Cohesion Funds. Thus, several authors point out that the more economically developed regions tend to attract a larger volume of funds, being able to provide the necessary co-financing. This is a problem as the economic disparities between the regions does not diminish, on the contrary it is possible to increase. In the present article we will analyze the distribution of the Structural Funds addressed to the business environment at the level of the North-East Region of Romania, trying to see if there is a representative difference between the economically developed and the least developed counties. The statistical tests conducted indicate the existence of representative differences between the counties of the North-East Region of Romania regarding the volume of community funds absorbed, thus confirming that the more economically developed regions tend to attract a larger volume of structural funds.