Economic resilience and sustainable finance are two interlinked and crucial issues for development and convergence in Romania’s counties increasing cohesion. These issues can contribute to sustainable and balanced growth of local and regional economies and to the reduction of inequalities in regional development. Economic resilience in counties refers to their capacity to adapt and survive in the face of unforeseen economic shocks or challenges, and sustainable finance refers to ensuring responsible management of financial resources to support long-term development and protect the environment. Identifying and understanding the significant variations in economic resilience and sustainable financing between counties is essential for the formulation of regional development policies and strategies. These variations provide valuable information about the vulnerabilities and opportunities of individual counties and guide resource allocation and investment decisions. The research provides new data and relevant information on the significant variations among counties in economic resilience and sustainable financing, using a Markov transition probability matrix and exploratory–visual method. This study on Romanian counties aims to provide valuable information for the formulation of public policies to support balanced economic development across the country. The results showed that economic diversification is essential to increase the resilience of the economy to shocks and fluctuations. Counties that have a diversified economic structure, with multiple sources of income and economic activities, are less vulnerable to the negative impact of economic or natural events. Governance and political stability are key factors in creating a favorable environment for investment and economic development. Well-managed government policies can help maintain macroeconomic stability and increase the resilience of the economy to external fluctuations.

The target for 2030 of reaching a 32% share of renewable energy in the gross final energy consumption can be achieved by speeding up the transformation pending the implementation of knowledge transfer (KT) policies that foster regional cooperation for the cost-effective development of renewables. The research purpose is the analysis of important factors in the development of the renewable energy sector through knowledge sharing and collaboration across the Member States in a comparable manner. The hypotheses are as follows: Hypothesis 1 (H1) there are synergies between knowledge transfer and economic impact through income and jobs for the renewable energy sector and Hypothesis 2 (H2) the EU countries have different profiles of synergy. The research proposition was established through the employment of a quantitative synergy and trade-offs analysis based on the knowledge transfer indicators and the sustainable development framework. The research method, namely the advanced sustainability analysis (ASA), uses the quantitative assessment tool for the understanding of synergies between two or three dimensions of sustainable development, presuming that the combined effect of the factors is greater than the sum of their individual effects. The current research comprises an evaluation of the renewable energy sector knowledge transfer policy models at the national level for 24 EU countries and four other European states, focusing on the capabilities to create synergies. The results of the study represent a valuable input for the policy makers, allowing for a coherent and sustainable planning and programming of the new electricity market, adopted through the Clean Energy Package, and following a highly dynamic and radically disruptive background, exploiting the ‘successful’ profiles.

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The last years were of profound transformation in public services that knows more or less the challenge from the private sector. A second dimension of competitiveness for the public services staring from 2007 was the free access of the citizens to at least education and health services in European Union. The paper aims to show the evolution of the cohabitation of the public and private sectors on the services of public interest, their development and evolution in different regions. Identifying and highlighting the key issues in competitiveness and quality of the services provided, will give us the main lines for the further development and public policies that should be considered. Considering the cohesion policy of European Union, an analysis of the public and private sectors in public services in Romanian counties could drive us to a conclusion about the affordability and the quality of the services. Using the statistics it can be show the regional distribution of the service providers especially for education, health, water supply and other services. The integrated analysis we offer a global picture of the regional potential and development. Based on the findings the public decision makers could better set up the sectorial public policies and the public spending. Never the less, the European support could be also directed to increase the quality and efficiency of the public services.

Against the background of multiple and simultaneous global socio-economic shocks, coupled with digital transformation and the green transition, regional resilience triggers new structural transformations. The more complex processes that need to be addressed now require the usage of complex integrated tools. The novelty of the integrated approach is the combination of the models and the synthetic spatial–temporal picture offered. The quadruple helix, or 4Helix, model puts Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) at the nexus of generating regional digital resilience. We posit a new mindset and behavior of human capital to reinforce innovation and knowledge production and transfer. We explore, using the Romanian national case, to what degree the spatial 4Helix model generates regional digital resilience as a positive externality of adoption of the ‘new normal’ digital education. We analyze this process in three steps. (1) We determine the spatial distribution of HEIs at the Romanian county level (NUTS3). (2) We calculate the regional static and dynamic resilience indexes (at NUTS2) as the outcome of the method for multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) by each region’s digital economy as well as individual and regional wealth, social digital use and social digital connectivity dimensions. (3) Lastly, we provide the result of overlaid maps and radar charts (using HEIs number and spatial coverage and each region’s static and dynamic digital resilience). These three classes of digital resilience models of 4Helix by region indicate a generalized failure in adopting digital education in Romania. The study contributes by adding a powerful tool to explore the complex processes or phenomena and generating an integrated perspective using a pre-existing framework. In doing so, it enables researchers to better understand and address society’s needs, co-create knowledge and solutions together with the end-users, maximize the impact of these solutions, optimize resources usage, and increase the transparency and accountability of the decision-making processes.

Lack of access to basic energy services, known as energy poverty, remains felt in the country, with seasonal changes and an economic divide. The frameworks to measure energy poverty differ spatially and temporally, with climate change and behavioral culture being the essential influencing factors. This paper is focused on heating and cooling energy demands, which can be defined as an energy poverty metric for the propensity to be at risk of energy poverty caused by climate regime. Employing sophisticated statistical space–time forecasting tools, we build a model incorporating spatial and temporal energy consumption volatility across Romanian regions at the NUTS3 level. The model considers climatic conditions and raw data from 45 years (1979–2023) of cooling and heating degree days to determine local trajectories for the next nine years. Identifying high-energy-poverty-risk areas in our research can provide valuable insights for policymakers, enabling them to develop targeted plans for eliminating energy poverty and ensuring equitable access to heating and cooling. The results underline the necessity of differentiated approaches in energy policies and add value to the general understanding of energy poverty issues and conditions, considering the Romanian climatic and socio-economic context.