Local Government Transfer into the Process of Ukraine's European Integration: Achievements of Communities and Losses of the Executive Branch of Power

2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 781-803
Author(s):  
Tetyana Oleksandrivna Karabin ◽  
Oleksandr Bilash ◽  
Roman Fridmanskyy ◽  
Vasyl Tymchak

The obligations assumed by the Ukrainian state by ratifying the association agreement between Ukraine and the European Union have become a reference point for transformations taking place in various spheres of public life, including local self-government. The article analyzes Ukraine's compliance with EU requirements regarding local self-government organisation, achievements in this field, and determining the prospects for reform. The analysis is grouped into four blocks: implementation of administrative and territorial reform; budget decentralisation; optimization of the organization of local public authorities (executive bodies formation of regional (oblast) and district (rayon) councils, the establishment of prefectures); land reform (transfer of land management to communities). The powers of local self-government bodies and state bodies were transformed in implementing municipal, territorial, fiscal and land reforms. However, further reforms are impossible without amendments to the Constitution of Ukraine (regarding the decentralisation of power), the adoption of new legislative acts (on the principles of the administrative-territorial structure of Ukraine, on prefectures), as well as amendments to some existing ones (on local self-government, etc.).

2019 ◽  
Vol 21 (11) ◽  
pp. 70-77 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. M. Kostenko

Information is a key aspect of the European integration process in Ukraine. Ukrainians support the Euro-integration course, but note that they haven’t enough information about the European Union, the existing European programs, the implementation of the Association Agreement, etc.The author identified the main stages of informational support for Euro-integration of Ukraine: a stage of discussion of the advantages of European integration and specific benefits of Ukraine; information pressure stage; a stage of increasing information anxiety and increasing tension in society; the stage of a sharp protest public information reaction of society; the stage of renewal of the course on European integration and strengthening of information and communication support.The analysis of target audiences shows that different socio-demographic groups in different ways have information about the peculiarities and nature of the relationship between Ukraine and the EU.The public authorities have primary responsibility for informing citizens about European integration, but they do not possess the methodological and practical tools of information campaigns. Therefore in the article analyzes the peculiarities of the mechanisms of informing in the Concept of realization of the state policy in the field of informing and establishing communication with the public on the urgent issues of European integration of Ukraine for the period until 2017 and the Strategy of Communication in the field of European integration for 2018–2021 years. These documents are the mechanism for the division of responsibility for conducting information policy on European integration (including financial) between public authorities and interested non-governmental organizations, international donors and business structures. In this regard, the role of public institutions whose task is to inform Ukraine’s European integration processes and work with different target groups, on the one hand, and the establishment of communication between government and civil society in the planning and implementation of information campaigns on European integration on the other, is increasing.The local authorities have sufficient tools to influence public opinion, but often ignore the issue of European integration. In addition, an important condition for the implementation of the Strategy at the regional level is the establishment of cooperation between local authorities and public organizations.


Author(s):  
Olena Agapova

Implementation of the Association Agreement between Ukraine and the European Union has opened additional opportunities for establishing bilateral cooperation between bodies, institutions and organisations in the field of justice. The article examines the structure and management system of the Ministries of Justice of Ukraine and Latvia. In the course of a detailed analysis of the institutional structure and functional purpose, it was established that the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine and the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Latvia have similar activities and management systems, typical for many European countries. Ukraine’s European integration aspirations, reflected in its commitments under the Association Agreement between Ukraine, on the one hand, and the European Union, the European Atomic Energy Community and their Member States, on the other, demonstrate Ukraine’s serious intentions to change its approach to justice. It is established that in the direction of the development of cooperation in the field of justice between Ukraine and Latvia fruitful cooperation is established, which is reflected in the Memorandum of Understanding between the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine and the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Latvia.


Author(s):  
M. Baranovskyi

Reforming the administrative and territorial structure of Ukraine within the process of decentralization has a number of unresolved issues. The second stage of the reform related to the formation of administrative and territorial units of the subregional level has now begun. The plan of 136 new districts approved by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine provoked a lively discussion both in the regions and in the expert community. The study analyses the approaches of scholars to the creation of administrative units of the subregional level in Ukraine in order to switch to a three-level model of territorial division. The article provides the arguments for and against the creation of new administrative and territorial units of the subregional level in Ukraine. The existence de facto in Ukraine of a number of inter-district territorial systems in various spheres – education, medicine, tax service – has been proved. Based on the analysis of quantitative criteria, written in the methodology for the creation of new districts, it was defined that they met the NUTS-3 level of the territorial division standard of the European Union countries. A comparative analysis of schemes for dividing the country into districts, which were developed by different Governments of Ukraine, and the network of districts approved by the Verkhovna Rada in 2020 was carried out. The article presents reasons for the increase in the number of new districts from 102 to 129 and then to 136 units, primarily due to the extension of their network in the temporarily occupied territories of Donbas and Crimea, as well as under pressure from regional representatives. The complexity of the issue of forming a network of new districts and their centres are described on the example of Chernihiv region. It is determined that the average population of the project district in Ukraine is 303 thousand people, the population of the centre of administrative units of the subregional level, 130 thousand people. The significant disparities (from 58 to 362 times) in the population of new districts and their centres were defined. Based on the calculations, it was found that 26,5 % of new districts have less population than that determined by the methodology of forming administrative units of the subregional level (150 thousand people). The situation with the population of district centres is similar. Almost 50 % of subregional centres approved by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine account for less than 50 thousand people, which may be an obstacle to form high-quality human resources of the executive bodies. It is defined that the competition between cities for the status of the new district centre is due to the desire of local elites to retain control over certain areas. The ambiguous attitude to the issue of creating administrative units of the subregional level on ethnic grounds (Bolhrad and Berehovo districts) among experts and regional elites is pointed out. The list of personnel, financial, property issues that need to be resolved in order to build an effective executive branch in Ukraine at the subregional level has been determined.


2018 ◽  
Vol 2018 (6) ◽  
pp. 3-12
Author(s):  
Zhang DONGYANG ◽  

The status and prospects of development of trade and economic relations between Ukraine and China are considered. It is proved that bilateral cooperation in the trade and economic sphere has made significant progress. In 2012–2017, China was the second largest trading partner of Ukraine after Russia. However, the problem of imbalance in imports and exports between Ukraine and China has not yet been resolved. In addition, the scale and number of projects in which Ukraine attracts Chinese investment is much less than investments from European countries and the United States. It is justified that trade and economic cooperation between Ukraine and China is at a new historical stage. On the one hand, Ukraine signed the Association Agreement with the European Union, and on January 1, 2016, the rules of the free trade zone between Ukraine and the EU entered into force. This helps to accelerate the integration of Ukrainian economy into European one. On the other hand, the global economic downturn requires the introduction of innovations in the model of cooperation. The Chinese initiative “One belt is one way” is one of the variants of the innovation model of cooperation. Its significance is to unite the Asia-Pacific region with the EU in order to join the Eurasian Economic Union, create a new space and opportunities for development and achieve prosperity with the Eurasian countries. All this forms unprecedented opportunities for development of bilateral economic and trade relations. It seems that to fully open the potential of Ukrainian economy and expand bilateral trade and economic cooperation, it is necessary to take into account such proposals as the establishment of the Sino-Ukrainian industrial park, the promotion of cooperation in the field of electronic commerce, the formation of the Sino-Ukrainian free trade zone and enhanced interaction within multilateral mechanisms (for example, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and the interaction of China and the countries of Central and Eastern Europe in the 16 + 1 format).


2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 (10) ◽  
pp. 3-18
Author(s):  
Valeriy HEYETS ◽  

Self-realization of the individual in the conditions of using the policy of “social quality” as a modern tool of public administration in a transitional society is largely related to overcoming the existing limitations of the individual in acting in such a society and economy transitioning to a market character. Given that, in particular, in Ukraine the market is hybrid (and this is especially important), the existing limitations in self-realization of the individual must be overcome, including, and perhaps primarily, through transformations in the processes of socialization, which differ from European practices and institutions that ensure its implementation. Thus, it is a matter of overcoming not only and not so much the natural selfish interests of the individual, but the existing gap in skills, which are an invisible asset to ensure the endogenous nature of economic growth. It is shown that there is an inverse relationship between the formation of socialization and the policy of “social quality”, which is characterized by the dialectic of interaction between the individual and the group and which is a process of increasing the degree of socialization. The latter, due to interdependence, will serve to increase the effectiveness of interaction between the individual and the group, which expands the possibilities of self-realization of the individual in terms of European policy of “social quality” as a tool of public administration, whose successful application causes new challenges and content of the so-called secondary sociology. The logic of Ukraine's current development shows that new approaches are needed to achieve the social development goals set out in the Association Agreement between Ukraine and the European Union and to minimize the potential risks and threats that accompany current reforms in Ukrainian society. They should introduce new forms of public administration to create policy interrelationships of all dimensions, as proposed, in particular, by the social quality approach to socialization, the nature of which has been revealed in the author's previous publications. As a result, the socio-cultural (social) dimension will fundamentally change, the structure of which must include the transformational processes of socialization of a person, thanks to which they will learn the basics of life in the new social reality and intensify their social and economic interaction on the basis of self-realization, thereby contributing to the success of state policy of social quality and achieving stable socio-economic development.


Author(s):  
Oleksandr Malashko ◽  
◽  
Serhii Yesimov ◽  

The article examines trends in the development of legal regulation of information security in Ukraine in the context of the implementation of the Association Agreement between Ukraine and the European Union. The current information legislation and regulations on information security are analyzed. The tendencies in the legal regulation of information security that took place at the initial stage of the formation of information legislation are revealed. Based on the factors that took place before the adoption of the Doctrine of information security of Ukraine, the laws of Ukraine “On the basic principles of ensuring the cybersecurity of Ukraine”, “On the national security of Ukraine”, in the context of the current legislation, based on the methodology of legal forecasting, it is concluded that in the future the development of normative legal information security will be developed on the basis of by-laws, mainly at the departmental level.


Oikos ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 14 (29) ◽  
pp. 13
Author(s):  
Olga María Cerqueira Torres

RESUMENEn el presente artículo el análisis se ha centrado en determinar cuáles de las funciones del interregionalismo, sistematizadas en los trabajos de Jürgen Rüland, han sido desarrolladas en la relación Unión Europea-Comunidad Andina de Naciones, ya que ello ha permitido evidenciar si el estado del proceso de integración de la CAN ha condicionado la racionalidad política del comportamiento de la Unión Europea hacia la región andina (civil power o soft imperialism); esto posibilitará establecer la viabilidad de la firma del Acuerdo de Asociación Unión Europea-Comunidad Andina de Naciones.Palabras clave: Unión Europea, Comunidad Andina, interregionalismo, funciones, acuerdo de asociación. Interregionalism functions in the EU-ANDEAN community relationsABSTRACTIn the present article analysis has focused on which functions of interregionalism, systematized by Jürgen Rüland, have been developed in the European Union-Andean Community birregional relation, that allowed demonstrate if the state of the integration process in the Andean Community has conditioned the political rationality of the European Union towards the Andean region (civil power or soft imperialism); with all these elements will be possible to establish the viability of the Association Agreement signature between the European Union and the Andean Community.Keywords: European Union, Andean Community, interregionalism, functions, association agreement.


1988 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 217-218
Author(s):  
Luther Tweeten

The authors describe how Pakistan has grappled with land reform, surely one of the most intractable and divisive issues facing agriculture anywhere. The land-tenure system at independence in 1947 included a high degree of land ownership concentration, absentee landlordism, insecurity of tenant tenure, and excessive rent. Land reform since 1947 focused on imposition of ceilings on landholding, distribution of land to landless tenants and small owners, and readjustments of contracts to improve the position of the tenant. These reformist measures have removed some but by no means all of the undesirable characteristics of the system. The authors list as well as present a critique of the reports of five official committees and commissions on land reform. The reports highlight the conflicts and ideologies of the reformers. The predominant ideal of the land reformers is a system of peasant proprietorship although some reformers favoured other systems such as communal farming and state ownership of land, and still others favoured cash rents over share rents. More pragmatic reformers recognized that tenancy is likely to be with Pakistan for the foreseeable future and that the batai (sharecropping) arrangement is the most workable system. According to the editors, the batai system can work to the advantage of landlord and tenant if the ceilings on landholding can be sufficiently lowered (and enforced), the security of the tenant is ensured, and the tenant has recourse to the courts for adjudication of disputes with landlords. Many policy-makers in Pakistan have come to accept that position but intervention by the State to realize the ideal has been slow. The editors conclude that" ... the end result of these land reforms is that they have not succeeded in significantly changing the status quo in rural Pakistan" (p. 29).


2000 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
pp. 35-62 ◽  
Author(s):  
José Antonio Sanahuja

Mexico and the European Union signed a new Political and Economic Association Agreement in December 1997 and ultimately a free-trade agreement in March 2000, aiming to establish a new model of relations with a more dynamic trade and investment component. This article analyzes the 1997 agreement as background to the final accord. Economic and political changes in the 1990s modified both parties’ participation in the international political economy, helping to overcome some of the structural obstacles to the relationship. The policy toward Latin America adopted by the EU in 1994 was influential. The negotiation process revealed divergences over the scope of the liberalization process and the so-called democracy clause.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
Adena R Rissman ◽  
Molly C Daniels ◽  
Peter Tait ◽  
Xiaojing Xing ◽  
Ann L Brower

Summary Neoliberal land reforms to increase economic development have important implications for biodiversity conservation. This paper investigates land reform in New Zealand’s South Island that divides leased state-owned stations (ranches) with private grazing leases into state-owned conservation land, private land owned by the former leaseholder and private land under protective covenant (similar to conservation easement). Conserved lands had less threatened vegetation, lower productivity, less proximity to towns and steeper slopes than privatized lands. Covenants on private land were more common in intermediate zones with moderate land-use productivity and slope. Lands identified with ecological or recreational ‘significant inherent values’ were more likely to shift into conserved or covenant status. Yet among lands with identified ecological values, higher-threat areas were more likely to be privatized than lower-threat areas. This paper makes two novel contributions: (1) quantitatively examining the role of scientific recommendations about significant inherent values in land reform outcomes; and (2) examining the use of conservation covenants on privatized land. To achieve biodiversity goals, it is critical to avoid or prevent the removal of land-use restrictions beyond protected areas.


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