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The issue of European funds has benefited from a wide exposure in the specialized literature. Mainly, these have been addressed in the light of the two main policies at European level that regulate their organization, namely the Cohesion Policy and the Common Agricultural Policy, but also in the light of the need for integration, especially of the new Member States. Integration is seen as a process of reducing disparities between regions, this approach being attributable to a specific European model of integration (Garrido et al., 2007). European funds were one of the main advantages offered by membership of the European Union, but experience has shown, even in the case of older Member States within the European Union, that there have been difficulties in the proper use and absorption of CAP funds (Kurecic & Segovic, 2016). Cohesion is understood as the degree to which economic and social disparities between regions or groups of regions are tolerated from a political and social point of view (Molle, 2007). Defining Cohesion Policy is a difficult task, especially due to its complexity but also due to the implementation process (Petcu & Roth, 2015). Cohesion policy has the potential to generate a competitive advantage for companies, regions and countries and to develop human, intellectual and digital momentum (Olbrycht et al., 2011). The purpose of cohesion policy is not to homogenize regions, this approach is considered both harmful to the free market economy and impossible to achieve, but to achieve convergence in development and to eliminate development differences between regions (Dorobanțu, 2012). The Commission has decided that in exchange for direct assistance to undeveloped regions, most of them not having a clearly defined set of objectives, they will finance smart growth (Bongardt & Torres, 2010; Pereira, 2011). Probably one of the biggest dilemmas in which the interested actors of Cohesion Policy find themselves is the border between competitiveness and convergence. This was underpinned by an uneven distribution of added value between the Member States and a concentration of wealth, mainly at the level of certain Member States (especially Western European states), which has been accentuated over the last two decades (UNDP, 2010). Moreover, cohesion has often been approached through the principle of solidarity, so that the European market economy has been defined as a social market economy (Bărlescu, 2006). As can be seen from the literature, it does not provide a clear answer regarding the definition of cohesion and its characteristics, a situation which is difficult from the perspective of the analysis perspective.