INSTITUTIONAL OBSTACLES IN CROSS-BORDER COOPERATION BETWEEN ROMANIA AND REPUBLIC OF MOLDOVA

With more than twenty years of experience in cross-border cooperation between Romania and Republic of Moldova, there are still many obstacles to be overcome. In this context, political, social and historical preconditions may be a relevant vantage point for explaining the complex context of CBC. Based on the existing research, institutional issues are considered to be the primary cause for the lack of effectiveness, which affects the level of involvement of each partner in specific projects and the impact of which can be noticed in the output of many of these projects. Therefore, the aim of this article is to identify the main sources of institutional inefficiency regarding cross-border cooperation between Romania and Republic of Moldova. In particular, our work provides an understanding of the causes that have a negative impact on institutional performance, but also of the factors that determine their resilience. The paper's methodology is based on descriptive analysis and case study. The analysis shows that there is no predominant factor which might explain the lack of effectiveness in CBC context; rather, there are several factors which affect it, such as political instability, institutional framework, geopolitical factors and also the national legislative framework. In general, it can be stated that cross border cooperations contexts tend to be a topic not widely analysed in the academic literature. Thus, this article also aims to encourage debate and research on CBC related topics.