Euroregion as a Tool for Sustainable Development of Border Areas: The European Experience and Ukrainian Features

The purpose of the research is to study the role of Euroregions in the provision of sustainable development of border regions of Ukraine on the basis of the analysis of European experience and the research of Ukrainian practice. The paper describes the development of transboundary cooperation in Europe, the peculiarities of the integration processes in the Euroregions, shows the development of Euroregions in Ukraine: „Carpatskyj“, „Bug“, „Nyzhnij Dunaj“, „Dniester“, „Verhnij Prut“, „Dnieper“, „Slobozhanshchyna“, „Yaroslavna“, defines their composition and structure, describes the basic functioning problems, such as low level of social and economic development in comparison with other (central) regions, the peripheral nature of economics, the presence of “a zone of potential political exertion“; the distance from the inner sources of regional security forms their focus on foreign economic cooperation, which makes them fragile to the dynamics of trade and economic relations of Ukraine with the neighbouring countries. The map of attraction of the regions of Ukraine into the European regions is made, in particular the regions that are proposed to be included in the composition of European regions for activation of transboundary cooperation are selected, and the proposed scenarios for the development of relations of Ukraine with the neighbouring countries are created.