Reflections on the impact of the association agreement between the Republic of Moldova and the European Union on the economy of the national rural space

European authorities have given and increased attention to rural areas. Still in Agenda 2000, the European Commission has included "coherent sustainable rural development policies". Moldova is "condemned" to pay more attention to rural areas, as the majority of the population is located here. Moreover, the share of the rural population increases from 52.6% in 1990 to 57.5% of the total population in 2016. The approach of the rural development problem is also conditioned by the difficult condition of the village. Incidentally, paragraph (d) of Article 68 of the Association Agreement between the Republic of Moldova and the European Union and the European Atomic Energy Community and their Member States, of the other part, initialed in November 2013 (hereinafter referred to as "Agreement"), urges us to"exchange knowledge and good practices on rural development policies to promote the economic well-being of rural communities". The basic unit of the rural area in our country, in administrative terms, is the village, which according to the "European Rural Country Book" [14,9] is assigned the following functions: economic, ecological, socio-cultural. The article meditates on the economic function, which includes the sustainable use of natural resources, the development of an efficient agricultural production system, the promotion of tourism and other services. As a result, the authors come up with some proposals that would contribute to the sustainable economic development of the national rural economy.