Primăriile și competiția fondurilor europene: cazul „punctelor albe”
Municipalities in the Contest of European Funds: the Case of ‘White Spots’

Summary/Abstract: This paper examines the case of ‘white spots’ in the absorption of European funds for the level of urban and rural municipalities in Romania. The ‘white spots’ are those municipalities that have not succeeded to absorb any euro from the entire volume of available European funds, for the period of 2009–2015. The paper defines the absorption of European funds as a case of attracting financial resources from the external environment, therefore as a case of organizational effectiveness for public organizations. The results of the analysis are mainly based on a secondary analysis of the local budgets execution database, for the period of 2009–2015. In addition to other quantitative data sources, a series of interviews with mayors representing ‘white spots’ has been conducted. The study identifies several characteristics of white spots municipalities, differentiated according to: i) territorial distribution; ii) fiscal capacity; iii) size of the organization and locality; iv) previous experience in European funded projects; v) local level of human development; vi) environmental factors and resource munificence as well as vii) other factors.

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