Development of Regional Cooperation between Ukraine and the Republic of Poland: the Contractual Base Genesis

Abstract

Modern international relations are characterized by intensive integration processes, among which cross-border, regional, and interregional cooperation plays an important role. Ukraine, due to its favorable geopolitical position, has great potential for its development. However, the process of inter-state relations formation has a number of specific features. Throughout the time of independent Ukraine, regional cooperation has been formed under the influence of a number of factors, both external and internal, which made a significant impact on these processes. A retrospective review of these relations genesis shows that their formation is a complex and contradictory process, although the tendency towards understanding and rapprochement between the two neighboring states has always dominated in it. The legislative framework for regional relations between Ukraine and the Republic of Poland has come much closer to the best European standards since the second half of the 1990s. Although a lot of things need to be done in Ukraine to complete the formation of a national legislative framework, which would fully define the legal framework and regulate regional cooperation. In particular, the fact is that even after 1996, when the «Carpathian» and «Bug» Euroregions began to function, no law of Ukraine defined the categorical apparatus according regional cooperation and the peculiarities of the functioning of the border region in the foreign market. From a political point of view, maintaining a high level of cross-border relations between Ukraine and Poland, and Ukraine in general, contributed to the formation of pro-market, pro-Western orientation of Ukrainian society, which had a positive impact on the entire European integration process.