Local Employment Policies in the Context of the Economic Crisis - Influences of the European Community Structural Instruments

For several European states, including Romania, the European integration process has overlapped with the effects of the economic and financial crisis. The consequences of such a situation are apparently contradictory. On one hand, the crisis lowers the European integration process in view of achieving the performance imposed by the Single Market, the economic and administrative convergence etc. On the other hand, the possibility of accessing the European structural funds becomes a welcome financial resource for diminishing or stopping the effects of the crisis. The second alternative establishes new balances or imbalances at the local community level, with effect on the employment policies. The European structural instruments - Structural Funds, Cohesion Fund, EC initiatives - are associated with the effects induced in view to achieve the EU objectives such as: economic, social and territorial cohesion, economic growth, competitiveness, employment, sustainable development etc. The current paper aims to emphasize in a theoretic and empiric manner, the influences of these structural instruments on the employment policies at local level. At the same time, those influences will be correlated statistically with the effects of the financial crisis, obtaining a more comprehensive image concerning the consequences of the mix of national and EC policies for the economic integration and fight against the effects of the financial crisis for some EU states. The authors propose a model of local development based on the theory of the general balance, integrating the resources provided by the structural instruments and emphasizing their compensatory effects related to the financial crisis. The proposed model is empirically exemplified for some development regions in Romania, suggestive for general conclusions, of comparative nature, at European and international level