Yesterday Bucharest Business Week organized a seminar session about Romania's integration in EU. While you could read more about the highlights here, it should be noted Mugur Isarescu's scenarios (the Central Bank Governor) regarding Romania's catching up with EU. The good scenario with Ro GDP increase of 5% and EU GDP increase of 2% implies Rom-Eu convergence in about 50 years. The better scenario involved an additional assumption of a stable exchange rate diminuation of 3% leads to a convergence in some 20 years.
This is the raw data, however, I have the sensation that the problem per se may be perceived from a different angle. It appears to me as if it was a competition with the leading runner taking a considerable advanced position. While it is true that there are several standards Romania has to comply with and several conditions it has to fulfill in order to be part of the EU, it is implied that being EU-admitted will mean a better living standards for Romania. I disagree, i think that the EU admission is just a mean not an end and several additional problems will arise anyway when its time will come. The EU accession should be just a (small?) part of a national strategy for turning around the economy by finally restructuring it, making it functional, deciding about the State competency(ies) (and focusing on it accordingly) and promoting a healthy environment for letting the private companies competing on theirs.
Besides being reactive at EU compliants, the government should proactively look at the big picture and execute a strategy that includes the EU standards as part of the rules of the game in a functional market economy. There's no evidence of doing this so far. A small example is the e-Governemnt initiative, which they boast to be the first one in CE Europe, and, more important, to be functional. Nobody says anything about the usability rates and about the promotion tools used for making a good use of it. My guess is that nobody followed up on the execution. The tool is there and apparently very few individuals make use of it. I intend to look more into it and will post details about it.
