The effects of the nonreimbursable financial assistance on the cities with less than 50.000 inhabitants from the north-east region of Romania

The effects of the implementation of the programmes financed by the European Union (EU) for 2007-2013 have begun to take a clearer shape as the implementation period reaches its end. An accurate understanding of these effects could lead to a better identification and support of those regional development interventions with a significant impact on reducing the development gaps between Romania and the other member states of the European Union and on the improvement of the living conditions for the Romanian people in general. In this context, the paper presents the results of an analysis performed with regard to the connection between the projects implemented with EU assistance in cities with under 50.000 inhabitants from the Romanian North-East region and the attractiveness of these cities, measured in terms of the increase in number of individuals establishing a residence in the city and the decrease in the number of individuals no longer residing in a city. Two hypotheses are verified. With regard to the first hypothesis, the more the cities benefit from a larger financial assistance, regardless of the number or the typology of the projects on the basis of which this assistance has been granted, the more the attractiveness of the cities increases for their population. With regard to the second hypothesis, the attractiveness of the cities increases when the complexity of the interventions increases, independent from the amount of the financial nonreimbursable assistance.