Abstract. Cohesion policy is one of the solutions to overcome the current crisis because the efficient use of its financial instruments determines the strengthening of the competitiveness of the European economy, the acceleration of economic growth and employment growth. The transposition of the economic and social cohesion in the territorial level is not new, but the economic development of the regions highlights that the gaps within states have widened over time. In this paper, we propose to evaluate the efficiency with which the European funds in Romania have been used so far by using a matrix for assessing regional competitiveness.

Keywords: regional competitiveness; regional disparities; cohesion policy; territorial cohesion; European funds.