Legal forms of participation of Ukrainian citizens in cross-border cooperation

Abstract

The article examines the legal forms of participation of Ukrainian citizens in cross-border cooperation. It is established that the European Framework Convention on Transfrontier Co-operation between Territorial Com-munities or Authorities does not explicitly establish forms of involvement of citizens in cross-border co-oper-ation, but does not restrict them. It was found that citizens are members of local communities and they can not directly and indirectly benefit from cross-border cooperation, so their participation in such processes should not be limited.The provisions of Protocol № 3 to the European Framework Convention on Transfrontier Co-operation between Territorial Communities or Authorities concerning Euroregional Co-operation Associations of 16 November 2009 are analyzed. It is established that this protocol clearly regulates the consideration of the interests of individuals in the activities of associations of Euroregional cooperation.The activity of Euroregions formed with the participation of separate territories of Ukraine («Lower Danube», «Upper Prut», «Dniester» and «Carpathian Euroregion») is studied, clearly confirms the involvement of citizens in cross-border cooperation projects. The legal bases of involvement of citizens in the decision of important problems of territorial communities, including the account of their opinion in the course of cross-border cooperation are ana-lyzed. Among the analyzed forms, public consultations, citizens’ appeals and electronic petitions, general meetings of citizens and public budgets were highlighted.It is proposed to classify the legal forms of citizens’ participation in cross-border cooperation as follows: direct forms of participation (first of all, participation of citizens in cross-border cooperation projects, including such events as round tables, conferences, seminars, trainings, etc.); indirect forms of participation (forms of citizen participation aimed at ensuring that their views are taken into account in the process of cross-border cooperation, in particular through: public consultations, citizens’ appeals, general meetings, public budgets, public hearings, local initiatives, etc.).