Filote: we can find inspiration for a new economic growth model in the integrated development of the rural environment

The integrated development of the rural environment could provide inspiration for a new economic growth model, head of the European Commission's Representation Office in Bucharest Angela Filote said on Monday. ''When we look at the integrated development of the rural environment, we can find inspiration for a new economic growth model, where the economy grows in harmony with nature,'' said Filote. In a debate about the integrated development of rural areas, Filote advocated the increase in productivity in Romania and a transformation in the way to produce, referring in the context to both products with a low market value and to those with a high value, spanning the entire range from small-scale technologies to high technology. "If we carry on like this we will exhaust the planet's resources and we need an economic growth model based on intergenerational solidarity. Let us bequeath to the future generations a planet they can live on," said Angela Filote, referring not only to the situation in Romania, but to what happens at global scale. The head of European Commission's Representation Office in Bucharest considers that Romania is at a "turning point" where the current economic growth model can be changed. "In the 25 years since the Revolution, Romania has had an economic growth model that generated growth (...), yet without generating growth for the citizen. It is a consumption-based growth, which pretty much relies on very low wages. But a sustainable economic growth is based on production and it's this growth that also offers satisfaction to the citizen that leads to wage growth. The efforts made over several financial assistance programs which imposed austerity allowed the creation of fiscal space that made specific measures possible, wage growth included, but this fiscal space is not large enough to prompt a wage increase that can also reflect in higher living standards," Filote said. She explained that Romanians have not yet reaped the benefits they were expecting after the country's EU accession and the economic growth model the EU relied on in the first 50 years of its history is no longer viable. "If the European integration process in the first 50 years resulted in the reduction of gaps between member states and between the various social groups in the European Union, now, as we draw the line eight years after accession, we see that in Romania the gaps have not narrowed but have widened, both those separating various regions of the country and those between various social groups. Therefore, I think this is a good time to ask the question what can Romania offer the European Union, because a process of reflection on a new economic growth model has started, in the EU as well," said Filote.