Socio-economic aspects of rural Romania

The socio-economic impact of structural changes that have affected Romania since 1989 is still being felt. The test of crossing towards market economy still wishes to be passed, although, economic legislation and public administration were harmonized to European model. Strengthening private property through restitution of approximately 95.6% hectares of agricultural land between 1991 and 2005 was the key moment in this process of transition. Since then, the image of the Romanian agriculture and rural areas experienced important changes, individual farms enjoying a numerical domination and determining a new structure of the rural economy. Given the problems rural Romania is facing, as well as the objectives of the next stage of EU financial programming 2013-2020, and, in addition, Europe 2020, a clear and coherent situation of rural Romania's situation is required. Rural Romania has an important share, totalling around half of the total population and most of the land. The economic and social results of these areas are far behind those obtained in other regions of the EU, but they shall be aligned. The discrepancies are large, but ought to be recovered. (C) 2014 Published by Elsevier B.V.