Abstract. In view to improve the competitiveness and economic growth as well as to diminish the gaps between Romania and the EU developed states, the Structural and Cohesion Funds represent an outstanding source of investment.

The operationalisation of the structural instruments is paramount for a sustainable socioeconomic development.

After Romania joined the European Union, during the programming period 2007-2013, Romania has been allocated approximately 19.21 billion euro from Structural and Cohesion Funds and Romania’s contribution (including private sources) to complement the EU investments was forecasted to reach at least 5.6 billion euro.

The absorption of Structural and Cohesion Funds has represented one of the major priorities of the Government of Romania since the approval of the Operational Programmes, Romania being among the first Member States whose Operational Programmes were approved by the European Commission. The difficulties faced since the very beginning of implementation have overlapped with the effects of the economic and financial crisis, thus the absorption rate was under the previous expectations. The management authorities and the beneficiaries have also faced multiple and complex problems.

The current paper aims to present the institutional mechanisms, instruments and practices for the absorption and use of structural funds in Romania, focusing on the main problems and challenges during the implementation process.

Keywords: absorption capacity, Structural Funds, instrument.