Cross-Border Co-Operation Euro-Regions at the European Union Eastern Frontier within the Context of Romania's Accession to the Schengen Area

The paper analyses a sector of the EU and NATO eastern border, basically, the frontier-line between Romania on the one hand, and the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine, on the other, a sector supposed to become also a Schengen border. The ethnical structure of the population living close to the frontier-area, the cohesion and functionality of the local and regional settlements systems, as well as the cross-border co-operation euro-regions are also discussed. Both banks of the Pruth River are heavily populated, doublet settlements acting as relays interconnecting the two settlement systems formed within the framework of a common historical background. The ethnical unity is a major binder of the territories lying on either side of the Pruth River and constituting the three Euro-regions. Romania's strivings to integrate into the European and Euro-Atlantic co-operation structures makes it necessary to secure its eastern border and control migration fluxes in this part of the Continent. The Pruth River becomes an axis of integration due to the continuity of the ethnical-linguistic element, as well as to the density and continuity of settlement on either bank; on the other hand, it also becomes an axis of fragmentation given its future role of relatively stable NATO and EU frontier-line, fact that imposes specific cross-border co-operation.