DEVELOPMENT OF INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION OF THE BORDERLINE TERRITORIAL COMMUNITIES OF UKRAINE WITH THE EU COUNTRIES UNDER MARTIAL LAW

In the article, international cooperation of territorial communities of Ukraine is defined as a strategic direction to attract financial resources and implement their investment projects. The authors name prerequisites for completing the reform of decentralization in Ukraine. It is stressed that the full-scale russian invasion of Ukraine and declaration of martial law have caused structural transformations in the parameters of performance of the local government bodies. The study is devoted to the theoretical and applied aspects of the organization and development of international cooperation among the territorial communities in Ukraine. The paper describes the methodology developed to study the international cooperation of territorial communities. The authors make an assessment of the conditions of international cooperation of territorial communities bordering the European Union countries and present results of the questionnaire conducted amongst managers of the border territorial communities of Ukraine in order to identify parameters of the international activity development. The analysis was conducted to clarify peculiarities of establishing cooperation of the bodies of local government of Ukraine with foreign partners and to find out restrictions and challenges influencing the communities' opportunity to implement international initiatives and cooperation in conditions of the russian-Ukrainian war. The researchers have developed a complex of measures necessary to improve the efficiency of the international cooperation between Ukrainian local territorial communities bordering the EU and foreign partners by carrying out a promotional campaign among the representatives of the local government bodies and developing a complex system of advanced training for the staff employed at the local power authorities in the field of international activity. It is also needed to enhance the institutional basis regulating the international activity of the territorial communities of Ukraine, to upgrade the financial and economic basis of the international cooperation implementation, as well as to accelerate the rates of development of the border infrastructure objects.