Convergența instituțională a României cu Uniunea Europeană[Institutional convergence of Romania with the European Union]

The recent history of mankind has shown the importance of institutions for addressing the macroeconomic balances, the market mechanisms and the improving of countries economic performances. The paper focuses on Romania’s institutional convergence with the EU Member States, revealing that, despite some progresses achieved in the pre-accession period as concerns the transposition and compliance with the European legislation, a deterioration in the institutional system functioning has been registered after joining the EU, in terms of public administration efficiency, stability of organizational structures, public procurement policies, corruption. Some of institutional deficiencies are explained by the more in-depth analysis of Romania’s credit institutions convergence with the EU banking system practicies. Significant differences in the magnitude of financial intermediation, loan-to-deposit ratio, minimum reserves requirements, borrowing costs, NPL ratio, interest rate margins, have been found. To these, dysfunctions of other institutions, as Bucharest Stock Exchange, authorities entitled to monitor and supervise competition, banking and non-bank financial market are added. In conclusion, the paper stressed that, the overall institutional picture of Romania seems rather divergent compared to the one of the EU, at least regarding the effective functioning of governance and institutions.