State regulation of transborder cooperation at the regional level

Within the European regions formed on the borders between Ukraine and the EU, the activation of investment cooperation and the diversification of its areas of activity are largely determined by the nature of the investment climate. This is because the investment climate’s features determine the importance of investment projects and their implementation in the relevant cross-border regions, will prioritize the development of these areas, as well as providing the availability of positive stimulus for legitimate investors for their work in the cross-border market.

The contemporary idea of cross-border cooperation in the sphere of regional development, for example, envisages rethinking the ideas about the country’s program of administrative-territorial land management, the development of these territories and its residents, and the inherent problems within. The residents of border areas most often turn out to be in a disadvantaged position, being tested by the hardship of limitations connected with the movement of people, goods, services, and ideas. Additionally, being at the outer periphery of the country, they feel that the central authorities have a traditional disregard toward them and they are held hostage by regionally disproprortionate development. Regions like these do not have the resources or capacity for independently resolving problems on their own. As a result, many regions transform into economically depressed and backwards territories.

For resolving these problems on the international level, as well as aligning the level of development of European regions, the European framework convention on cross-border cooperation between territorial communities or authorities was passed in 1980. It was directed at establishing close collaboration between border regions in the spheres of economics, the environment, science, and culture. There was an erasure of the boundaries with the goal of establishing a unified, tolerant, and prosperous Europe.

According to this convention, “cross-border cooperation” is defined as any mutual actions, directed at strengthening and deepening the neighborly relations between territorial communities or powers which are found under jurisdictions of two or more contractual sides and embedding with this goal of any necessary agreements or reaching understandings.