The Cohesion Policy Of The European Union: Alternative Funding Mechanisms Of The Romanian Economy

Along with the internal market, as well with the Economic and Monetary Union, the economic and social cohesion is one of the main objectives of the European Union under the Treaty of Maastricht, respectively, to “promote social and economic progress and a high level of employability and the to achieve a balanced and sustainable development...” (Treaty on European Union - the Maastricht Treaty - 1992). In other words, economic and social cohesion would require the European Union population not to be disadvantaged, regardless of the region in which are living and/or working. This will depend very much on how it will be implemented, the cohesion policy by the European Union in cooperation with each Member State individually. This is the practical process of eliminating or at least reducing disparities in economic and social development of some Member States and/or their regions. European Union cohesion policy has three major dimensions: economic, social and territorial dimension size. The third dimension, size ”territorial” (Lisbon Treaty 2007) was introduced by the Lisbon Treaty and refers to the recognition of territorial diversity and the need to build on this diversity to generate development. Thus, it can be said that, currently, the main purpose of the cohesion policy of the European Union is represented by alleviating economic disparity, social and territorial cohesion. As regards, the cohesion policy, which are used to achieve its objective, namely to reduce disparity and strengthening economic, social and territorial cohesion can say that they are the Structural Funds and the European Investment. These structural and investment funds practically represent true alternative of funding mechanisms in the economy of a Member State, with a number of advantages over traditional financing mechanisms. To those mentioned above in this article, the authors have proposed to emphasize the cohesion policy and their role as alternative funding mechanisms of the Romanian economy and their trends in 2014- 2020.