The Role of Cross-Border Cooperation in Democracy Promotion Between Slovakia and Ukraine: The Zakarpattia (Transcarpathia) Region

Abstract

This paper argues that cross-border cooperation practices stand as a vehicle of Ukraine’s bottom-up integration with the EU, ultimately helping to grow public trust in democratic governance in Ukraine. By looking at the case of cross-border cooperation between Ukraine and Slovakia, this paper shows how cross-border cooperation practices are developing between two neighbouring states and how mutual trust between the border communities and with their local and national authorities has been established across the border. The cross-border cooperation policy of the European Union is a reasonably new policy for Ukraine. Therefore, best practices established by the neighbouring EU states have been of great significance for Ukraine from both political and territorial perspectives, and in relation to the Ukrainian state’s progress towards integration into Europe.