But this half-hearted approach still persists and thus, it is all the more true, that the limited economic resources and the economic and social reforms introduced only hesitantly and much too late continue to cause severe problems along the transforma-tion process. .
Even if the economy has been on a rising trend ever since 2000, and positive results have become apparent at least in as far as the macroeconomic development is con-cerned, corruption, legal uncertainty, excessive red-tapism, the underground economy and the very slow progress of the privatization process remain the major impediments in the way of a significant economic upturn. Viewed against this background, it is not at all surprising that inward investments, which have settled around 1 billion US- dol-lar per annum since 1999, are at a disappointingly low level measured against the eco-nomic potential of the country and its comparatively large market. They even dropped below 156 million during the first six month of 2003, which is even less that the fig-ures registered during the same period of the previous year. .
Such deficiencies and shortcomings are constantly criticized by the EU and other su-pranational and international institutions as well as the foreign businesses. They cannot follow the optimism of the Nastase government, which expects that Romania, as the last of the candidate countries to the EU, be granted the status of a functional market economy" in the upcoming country progress report of the European Commission which is due in fall. .
It is true that the last country progress report of the European Commission of 2002 has acknowledged that Romania has made significant progress in the transformation proc-ess and that the Copenhagen European Council of December 2002 has announced its support for the efforts undertaken by Romania with a view to joining the European Union on January 1, 2007. Thus, in order to solve the problems still lying ahead until the planned date of accession - depending on the progress made according to the roadmaps and significant improvement of an efficient resource management and em-ployment" " - the country shall be granted 1.
