Influence of EU Funds on Sustainable Development in the Young Members of the European Union

All countries that joined the European Union in the years 2004 and 2007 are currently undergoing an intensive process of stimulation of economic development in order to reduce the gap from the old core of the EU community. In this process, funds.' allocation to each EU member from the Community budget occupies a central position. Resource allocation is not done without imposing framework conditions, in this context being specified several topics for development of the European Union, such as sustainable development and equal opportunities, that must be met in any of these special funds supported activities. Therefore, the absorption being available, in addition to stimulating economic development, there should be a boost of sustainable development and equal opportunities. Sustainable development, seen as an attempt of coexistence between the environmental protection and the economic development in a global and long-term optic, imposes an important condition for achieving its objectives, namely simultaneous progress in several dimensions: economic policies, environmental issues, investments, research and development, employment policy, education sector, health, etc. Moreover, sustainable development supports visions of progress that integrates immediate and long term needs of the entire local community, with screenings in all socio-economic, cultural and environmental areas. Thus, sustainable development strategy must be strongly correlated with accessing funding programs of the European Union. Given the correlation between European Union funds, encouraging sustainable development and the fact that funds.' absorption varies in a large measure from state to state, the obvious question arises: countries that have received more funds from the EU community recorded a privileged position in terms of sustainable development? This article intends to answer this question and to test this important correlation. It is not an easy goal to achieve because the concept of sustainable development is very complex, requiring an evaluation of several statistical indicators.