THE EVOLUTION OF THE ROMANIAN SMEs AFTER ROMANIA’S INTEGRATION IN THE EUROPEAN UNION STRUCTURES

The analysis of the evolution of SMEs has become a distinct field of research and even of utmost topicality in the light of the latest scientific approaches developed on this matter, which is based on the fact that the Europe 2020 strategy and the European economy focus on harnessing the potential of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). They are the backbone of the economy in all countries, and the European Union’s experience shows that the SME sector can make an essential contribution to the gross domestic product (GDP) and reduce unemployment (60% of the GDP and about 70% of the total labor force). In the last period, entrepreneurship has created a unique context that offers to all those interested a favorable environment for the development of entrepreneurial activities that go beyond institutional barriers. This paper presents a specific situation based on the evolution of the Romanian SMEs in the context of the integration into the European Union sphere of influence, and implicitly a systematic centralization of the main indicators and the activity sectors of SMEs, in a comparative manner, according to the European model described in the literature. With the integration of Romania into the European Union, new opportunities have been created, focusing on increasing the competitiveness of SMEs through research and innovation, and implicitly the access to nonreimbursable financing.


Introductory theoretical aspects
According to the consulted literature, the term of entrepreneurship is perceived as a slippery concept because of the fact that the four core terms: entrepreneur, entrepreneurial, entrepreneurship and enterprise are each open to different interpretations. From this perspective, in order to avoid confusion it is important to recognize the different meanings that other people attribute to these terms and to make your own definitions and assumptions On-line Journal Modelling the New Europe Issue no. 27/2018 149 clear. The term entrepreneurial activity is defined "an enterprising human action in pursuit of the generation of economic and social value through the creation or expansion of economic activity, by identifying and exploiting new products, processes or markets and by meeting outstanding social and environmental needs". The entrepreneurship is described as "the phenomenon associated with entrepreneurial activity. It involves a complex pattern of social interactions that extends beyond individual entrepreneurs to incorporate teams, organizations, networks and institutions" (Blundel, Lockett, 2011, pp. 6-7). There are, also, "two major dimensions of entrepreneurship and those are mindset (also comprising capacity) and action (or process), both being essential to its success in the market" (Racolța-Paina, 2016, pp. 24-25). After the famous scientist, Peter Drucker, quoted by Nelu Eugen Popescu, "the entrepreneurs innovate and innovation is the specific instrument of entrepreneurship" and the entrepreneurship is defined as "an act of innovation that involves endowing existing resources with new wealth-producing capacity" (Popescu, 2014, p. 512). He highlights that small businesses represent the main catalyst of the economic growth.
The European Commission, through the Recommendation no. 361/2003/EC, defines micro, small and medium-sized enterprises as those entities that meet the following classification criteria, presented in the table below: Taking into account the annual report of the European SMEs for the period 2016-2017, one can note that 0.2% of enterprises which operated in the EU-28 non-financial business sector in 2016 were SMEs. These SMEs employed 93 million people, accounting for 67% of total employment in the EU-28 non-financial business sector, and generating 57% of value added in the EU-28 non-financial business sector. Almost all (93%) of the SMEs were micro SMEs employing less than 10 persons. After declining for a number of years following the 2008/2009 economic and financial crisis, EU-28 SME employment has picked up more recently and has outshone the economy as a whole. EU-28 SME employment grew by 5.2% from 2013 to 2016, almost 50% faster than overall employment in the EU-28 economy over the same period.
In 2016, SMEs in the EU-28 non-financial business sector accounted for: almost all EU-28 non-financial business sector enterprises (99.8%); two-thirds of total EU-28 employment (66. %); and slightly less than three-fifths (56.8%) of the value added generated by the non-financial business sector Micro SMEs are by far the most common type of SME,

The evolution of the Romanian SMEs after the integration into the European Union
After Romania's integration into the structures of the European Union, the SME which is the first SME policy framework that has created a favorable climate for promoting entrepreneurship and SMEs. The strategy of the European Commission in favor of the SMEs aims to apply the principle "Think small first" in order to simplify their business environment. This policy focuses on five priority domains, covering the following areas: promoting entrepreneurship and skills; improving the SMEs' access to the markets; simplifying the legislation; optimizing the SMEs' growth potential; and consolidating the consulting process and the dialogue with the SMEs (Popescu et al, 2012 (Duma, 2012, pp. 131-134). Afterwards, in the period 200-2010, the SME sector was one of the most affected by the economic and financial crisis. In

The comparative analysis of the Romanian and European SMEs -the main indicators
According to the annual report published by the SBA (Small Business Act for Europe) in 2017, as shown in Table 2   To meet the requirements of the European Union, the national authorities promoted specific initiatives to permanently improve the access of SMEs to finance (mainly through multiannual programmers). These were complemented by other specific tools addressing the needs of SMEs, such as loans, European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI) financing), guarantee funds, tax incentives, tax reductions, legislative measures, crowd funding and business angels. As shown in Fig. 3  The SMEs' growth remains a research topic that, during the last six decennia, has generated a large number of papers, mainly focused on the importance of this phenomenon for the creation of jobs and for the economic dynamics. As a tendency, the epistemological approach of the different researches had for a goal the identification of the growing SMEs' peculiarities, as well as bringing to light certain features highlighting the development potential or the impact of the endogenous and exogenous variables of this potential.

Conclusions
Under a changing economic environment, SMEs are flexible and have a large capacity to adapt, favored by their small size and rapid decision making process. They easily adapt to the requirements and exigencies of the consumers, being closer to the market. Also, SMEs generate to a large extent the technical innovations in the economy. Through their features, SMEs offer certain advantages in the economy that large companies do not have 158 (social capital, lower entry and exit costs). In the light of the information presented in this study, we can conclude that the overall SME sector is a major driver of economic growth across all European countries, which explains the joint public policies initiated by the authorities in order to re-launch the economy, taking into account the SME contributions in the overall economy and to diminish the existing gaps between member states.
Among the problems currently faced by SMEs, one can mention the high costs of contracted loans and their poor return capacity. The non-reimbursable funding through European funs is an alternative to supporting the development of SMEs. The highlighted issues are generated by too bureaucratic procedures; lengthy processes from the submission of projects until their implementation; the modification of financial procedures and sharpening the controls on entities that access such structural instruments.