NEETs IN THE EUROPEAN UNION AND THE PERSPECTIVE AT ROMANIA’S REGIONS OF DEVELOPMENT LEVEL Laura Maria DANILA Cornelia DUMITRU Abstract: Employment and unemployment have ceased to be the facets of the same coin, especially during the crisis and in the post-crisis period, when new types of employment emerged as response to the crisis on one hand, and as attempts to adjust to the new knowledge economy. However, the top of European Agendas is still concerned with the issues triggered by particular groups of unemployed. One such general, heterogeneous group is represented by young individuals not in employment, education or training (NEET). While for the developed countries of the EU- the issue is severe, for Romania other threats emerge, considering that Romania is one country faced with labor force deficit, and not with lack of generated jobs in the labor market. The present paper intends to analyze the various identified categories of NEET, and detach the most striking categories at the level of Romania’s regions of development. The most relevant issues are related to specific policies and measures aimed at this specific target group that must be tailored according to the new conditions triggered by the knowledge economy. The paper will be based on desk research by using the data provided by Eurostat, ILO, the World Bank and the National Institute of Statistics from Romania, (Tempo Online). Key words: labor market, employment, unemployment, NEET, policy JEL codes: E24, E26, J08, J46, J60, J21