Aspects Regarding The Romanian Rural Area Development After The Accession To The European Union

Romania became a member state of the European Union on January 1, 2007, and this involved compliance with the EU norms and standards, as well as the need to include certain national priorities subscribed to the national needs, given the significant economic development deficit compared to the Western and Central European countries. The Romanian rural residents, perhaps even more than those in urban areas, have put much hope in the European integration, especially after the “Agriculture and Rural Development” chapter was intensely debated in the pre-accession period. However, after seven years, the Romanian rural areas seem as developed or underdeveloped. The national agricultural policies were often inconsistent, the European funds have been poor, and rural development can be seen only here and there on the large farms or under the form of small and timid initiatives. This research aims to present the results of a rural area diagnosis conducted in the period 2007 - 2013, given a series of economic and social indicators, which reflect the development level of the Romanian countryside. The main source of information is the National Institute of Statistics of Romania for the data to be processed, and the national and international literature for the fundamental research. As research methods, we used bibliographic syntheses, statistical and mathematical processing and evaluation of quantitative and qualitative phenomena. The development / underdevelopment of the Romanian rural area after joining the European Union will be presented in the 2007-2013 timeframe, taking into account indicators such as: rural area and its distribution by agricultural and non-agricultural utilization categories; rural population in terms of structure, employment, educational level, life expectancy and so on; revenues and expenditures of the rural population; GDP / capita.