Management of the Structural Funds within the Context of the Global Economic Crisis

The member states which accessed the European Union in 2004 and 2007 progressed through similar financing cycles during the pre-accession period by applying the EU specific principles of positive conditionality. The beneficial effects of the pre-accession financing relied on specific instruments and mechanisms of economic growth and production of successful results both for the new member states and for the “old” member states. The absorption rates of the structural funds were quite low during the post-accession period in the new member states, even though the political agenda from these countries maintained this topic among its priorities. The global economic crisis produced different contractions among the European countries, the most affected being the new member states, context which requires improving the absorption capacity of the EU structural funds granted to these countries.