ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the possible impacts of European Union (EU) enlargement and EU policies on the further development of the relations between Moldova and Romania. It provides a short overview of the history of these relations and will, furthermore, trace their development since Moldova's independence. The Romanian revolution of December 1989 as well as political and ideological changes produced by Gorbachev's perestroika allowed for open borders between the two countries as well as free travel and contacts. In 1990 the strongest, most numerous and most powerful political force in Moldova at the time the Popular Front included the objective of unification in its programme. Political forces in Moldova advocating reunification with Romania thus lost an important component of their ideology. PHARE cross-border cooperation was conceived for cooperation between EU member states as well as between member and candidate states, neither of which applies to Moldova.
