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Research Institute for Quality of Life Report: Romania and Bulgaria rank last in terms of European standards
Romania and Bulgaria rank last in terms of European standards, reveals the 2016 social report of the Research Institute for Quality of Life (ICCV) of the Romanian Academy.
"After 27 years, Romania ranks last, together with Bulgaria, far away from European standards, but also from other former socialist states that are EU members. A country that is underdeveloped, impoverished, economically de-industrialized and with a disorganized agriculture, an economy unable to provide jobs for the entire population, low value jobs, a demoralized community," the ICCV report reads.
According to the document, Romania has registered the lowest economic growth since 1989, compared to the main European countries in transition.
"The experience of the last 27 years does not uphold the hope that salaries automatically increase as a result of GDP growth. The data show that an increase in GDP of almost 4 times is accompanied by a much more modest salary increase", indicates the ICCV report.
It also mentions that the Romanians' satisfaction state in relation to life is at a great distance compared to other countries in transition, except from Bulgaria.
The document points out that the annual income available per capita places Romania last in Europe, at a distance difficult to recover in the coming years: 25.9 pct compared to the 15 EU countries, and 61.1 pct compared to the 8 EU countries, according to Eurostat.
The causes are, according to the report, de-industrialization, technology that is exceeded in many areas and, in particular, poor management and low wage policy.
The report also shows that the unions' position "marginalized, rendering the increase of production comfortable at the work's expenses", that the employees' poverty has expanded, and the children's allowance has depreciated massively after 1989.
"Children and families are granted in Romania a very low public attention as compared to European standards," the report says.
According to the report, all the state's social functions have suffered since 1989 from a chronic sub-financing.
The political class is visibly facing a deep crisis, indicates the report.
"Romanian society is at risk of being politically cleaved not between classes and social groups, but between population and political/ public institutions affected by corruption and unable to provide the hope of a credible programme to enroll the country on the path of development", the document highlights.
The report shows that the social problems to be solved in the next 20 years are poverty, social inequality, migration for work and the social-economic situation of Roma people and that a reorientation of strategic political thinking is required. Thus, several priority directions are proposed, including the replacement of the low wage with a wage policy at European level, the public system's reform with the following priorities - cutting red tape, simplifying and streamlining, and the introduction of a national system of monitoring and evaluating policies, social programmes/projects, and the degree of Romania's progress.