Anti-EU political forces are growing in Romania, although the figures show that the standard of living has increased and we have surpassed countries like Hungary or Croatia in terms of GDP. Economist Radu Nechita, co-author of a study on Romania 17 years after accession, claims that the disappointment has to do with the political class.
Nechita says that not EU funds, but EU values have developed Romania PHOTO: Shutterstock
The researchers analyzed Romania's economic situation after 17 years of membership in the European Single Market.
“Those who say “wow, it was better under Ceaușescu” or “they turned us into a colony”, or who try to steer us towards Russia or anything other than the most prosperous economic and geopolitical area in the world, namely The West, they are not right”claims university lecturer Radu Nechita from Babeș-Bolyai University (UBB) from Cluj-Napoca, Faculty of European Studies, one of the economists who published the study “Revitalization of the Single Market for the next 30 years”.
The other authors are Christian Năsulea and Diana-Florentina Năsulea from the Bucharest Academy of Economic Studies.
“Overall, Romania's accession to the EU has been a success story: living standards have risen significantly since 2000, when this prospect of accession became a realistic expectation. From 17% of the EU average in 2000, Romania's real GDP/capita increased to 24% in 2007 and reached 35% in 2023 (Eurostat, 2024). In some more prosperous areas, the standard of living is above the EU average and higher than in some regions of “Old Europe”. The evolution of the standard of living (PPS) in relation to other Central and Eastern European countries and the EU average illustrates a process of recovery of the gapr”, the study shows.
The study quotes the economist Jan in 't Veld, who estimated in an analysis published in 2019, that non-adherence to the internal market would have meant for Romania a GDP lower than 9.2%.
Last year, the GDP per capita expressed in purchasing power parity in Romania was 78% of the EU average. We surpassed countries such as Hungary, Croatia, Slovakia, Latvia or Greece.
Why Romanians think we are heading in the wrong direction
Under these conditions, I asked Radu Nechita why more than 70% of Romanians believe that things are going in the wrong direction in Romania (according to a survey conducted by INSCOP at the request of News.ro in March).
One of Nechita's explanations is that the question is quite general. In addition, he explains, Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is not an ideal indicator if we are referring to the quality of life in a country.
GDP expresses the newly created value in a year in a country, but it says nothing about the assets to which this value is added. Basically, it is the sum of wages and profits, but the indicator does not say what they are added to, which is the level of prosperity from which we start.
As for the fact that Romania's GDP is higher than that of some countries that seem to be doing better than us, Nechita claims: “If it seems to us that there seems to be more welfare in Hungary than here, we may be right, because there is more accumulation. Maybe less was destroyed with them than it was destroyed with us. There would be many nuances to be made”.
Regarding the GDP in relation to the purchasing power parity, we have to take into account that here some services and products are cheaper.
“If we are to refer, for example, to some medical services, they are four to five times cheaper here than in Italy, even if the average income in Italy is only about two to three times higher than from Romania”he explains.
Economist Radu Nechita talks about Romania's development in the EU. PHOTO: R. Florescu
“A reflection of the state of disillusionment with politicians”
Although we are talking about numbers and statistical averages, the economist claims that the reality is indisputable: “Things have improved, we are better than some want to present. Sure, there's something the graphs don't show, the fact that we could be doing a lot better than we are now.“
As for the large percentage of Romanians who believe that we are heading in the wrong direction, Nechita claims that it is “a reflection of the state of disappointment of the population towards this political class”.
“I see the positive signals, but I also see that I could have had this standard of living since 2010 or 2000. I see a decade or two lost,” says the economist.
The study also reveals some challenges in this “relatively nice overall picture“: “On average, Romania remains one of the poorest countries in the EU for now, with a significant part of the rural population on the brink of absolute poverty.”
In addition to frustrations related to the political class, anti-EU political forces are also growing in Romania amid economic concerns. The study lists the following: Romania is still not accepted in the Schengen area, which represents an indirect but significant burden on the free movement of citizens and services); the new regulations are perceived as discriminatory (especially towards Romanian transporters and the agri-food industry) or excessively expensive (energy and the car industry).
To whom do we owe this prosperity?
Radu Nechita argued that these statistics, which reveal the fact that Romania is recovering from the development gaps compared to Western countries and surpasses the economies of neighboring countries, should not be interpreted as proof of the competence of the political class.
“What was achieved was achieved almost against them, in spite of them, not because of them. They have mainly manufactured a state of instability, they have shown an absolutely frightening legislative incontinence. Look at how many times the Fiscal Code has been changed, so at least 10 times a year. I'm talking about 10 legislative texts, not 10 amendments, because there are hundreds of amendments per year,” he explained.
And then, to whom do we owe the development of the country?
“What has been achieved is primarily due to Romanian and foreign investors and workers, employees from the private sector in Romania. We owe these things to them. They made efforts to restructure the economy, they were fired in the 90s. They worked on wages of nothing at first, which attracted investors through the 90s. They were the ones whose salaries were cut, they were the ones who were fired during the pandemic and they were the ones who paid the taxes from which all the country's infrastructure is powered“, explained the specialist.
The conclusion of the study is, according to Nechita, that our most important gain due to joining the EU is not European funds: “This is a vision of almsgiving. The benefits of connecting to the West in general and to the European Union in particular are undeniable. They are not limited to the European funds we receive, because they represent somewhere around 3% of GDP”.
As for the remaining 97% of GDP, Radu Nechita claims that it is due “connecting to this sphere, to this area of prosperity, to this community of values”.
“Not the money, but the rules that come to us from the West. Our boyars from the beginning of the 19th century when they traveled to the West were shocked by the difference in living standards between the Western countries and the Romanian countries, and they understood then that this is our direction. We would have been much, much further without the right and left dictatorial syncopations that we have known. So not European funds, but European values are the source of prosperity”, concludes the economist from UBB.
