This paper is about access to and participation in education under COVID-19 circumstances, in 2020, for the case of Romania. The study is based on a desk research and a qualitative research. The purpose of conducting the desk research was to better understand the circumstances under which educational activities have been performed in Romania during 2020. The qualitative research was conducted between November and December 2020, with the representatives of disadvantaged educational units from several development regions of Romania. The following research questions guided the study: (i) what are the key factors influencing access and participation in educational activities during the pandemic in Romania? (ii) which are the coping strategies (if any) developed in response to the pandemic constraints? The respondents of the qualitative research are school principals of ten pre-university disadvantaged educational units. The conducted thematic analysis identified six themes, with various subsequent themes in each field. They are grouped as follows: (1) high instability of the educational environment; (2) distance learning without an online component, incorporating a discussion on access to equipment and internet; local administrative capacity; increased educational risks and inequalities and implications for student’s assessment; (3) distance learning for children with special educational needs and children with disabilities; (4) coping strategies used in distance learning; (5) parents’ participation in distance learning and (6) perceived difficulties and support needed during distance learning. The paper provides implications and future research directions in the last section.

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This study analyzes the spatial differences in EU funds absorption among Romanian rural municipalities through the 2014-2020 programming period. The absorption capacity for EU funds is measured by the volume of spent EU funds by inhabitant, for each Romanian rural municipality. The results of the analysis highlight the importance of the territorial dimension when studying the distribution of EU funds among the rural municipalities of Romania. Affiliation with a specific development region (NUTS 2), county (NUTS 3) or a functional urban area (FUA) is used to differentiate the volume of absorbed EU funds. Levels of fiscal capacity, locality development, EU and state budget funding experience, and population dynamics in 2021 compared to those in 2014 are also used to distinguish between categories of municipalities receiving EU funds. In Romania, rural municipalities with higher levels of absorbed EU funding are, to a statistically higher extent, located in development regions in the Center, North‒West, South West and West of the country; in communes with no change, or even an increase, in population between 2021 and 2014; in the highest quartile of fiscal capacity and in communes with experience with EU funding from the preceding programming period. This article adds to the growing body of territorial evidence and can be used as a policy instrument to more closely examine the intervention tools embedded in EU funding policy. From a systemic approach, the results of the analysis are valuable for the design of integrated place-based strategies for EU, national and local level stakeholders, with the ultimate goal of improving quality of life for citizens living in rural areas.

This paper explores factors associated with differences in COVID-19 vaccination coverage in the rural localities of Romania. The perspective used by this study is therefore centered around structural factors, rather than on individual level factors. The study is based on a secondary analysis of public official data on vaccination coverage at local level and local budgets execution in Romania, alongside other variables publicly available. The study reveals that communes with a good vaccination coverage are to a significantly higher extent from communes with a good coverage of the population with general practitioners, a high COVID-19 incidence rate in September 2021, a higher share of older persons in the total population, without a marginalized community and from specific development regions. The paper contributes to enlarging the perspective on the structural factors related to territorial disparities on vaccination coverage.

This paper investigates from a comparative perspective the development of e-government in the field of social services and benefits for the case of Romania. The analysis takes into account the global context of the COVID-19 pandemic, where there has been an increased usage of ICT technology and new circumstances for delivering social services. Therefore, the analysis will examine whether there has been an impetus for developing e-government social services in Romania. Research questions address whether there is a difference in the availability of electronic delivery of social services and benefits during the pandemic period and examine potential differences between types of services and benefits, counties/regions and types of institutions (central, regional/county, local – mayoralties/urban and rural municipalities). Additionally, informative procedures available in 2021 are examined. The analysis revealed that there is no standardized set of available electronic procedures from similar institutions. The most eloquent case is the one of deconcentrated institutions, County Agencies for Payments and Social Inspection, which are subordinated to the same central level institution – Ministry of Labor. However, the study outlines a development on the total number of available procedures for social services and benefits. Significant improvements are needed to standardize the same procedures from different institutions, irrespective of their type of affiliated territory.