The Impact of European Funds and National Programs on SMEs in the Counties of North-West Romania

The general term “European funds” refers to the non-refundable financing instruments allocated to the Member States of the European Union. As far as Romania is concerned, the European Structural and Investment Funds (ESI Funds) constitute the main source of financing for the Operational Programs. The most important beneficiaries of these funds are SMEs, which constitute the backbone of the economy. This chapter analyzes the impact of the attraction of non-reimbursable financing by SMEs in the North-West Region of Romania on its economic evolution, analyzing a series of macroeconomic indicators regarding the financing attracted in the period 2014–2020, through the prism of macroeconomic indicators, such as gross domestic product, gross domestic product per capita at standard purchasing power parity (PPS/capita), gross value added (GVA), number of active local units, SME density, and labor productivity in SMEs; identifying the existence of a significant correlation between the amount of non-reimbursable financing attracted by SMEs and the variation of macroeconomic indicators. The volume of non-refundable funds attracted and the impact on the level of economic development of the region are assessed by using the Pearson correlation coefficient. The results present an uneven picture from the use of the two billion lei attracted from the various financing programs, but the correlation emphasizes the fact that the funds have directly influenced the upward evolution of the counties’ GDP, as well as the labor productivity.