Some aspects of the functioning of the European integration mechanism of public management of territorial development

Abstract

The aim of the article was to study the history of the formation of the European Union cohesion policy through the identification and formulation of the European integration mechanism of public management of territorial development to ensure the effective participation of communities and regions of Ukraine in modern European integration processes of transition to functional territoriality as the basis of modern EU cohesion policy in the aspect of its functional territoriality and transition to a new model of territorial development “functional community – functional region – functional state”. Steps to create a new territorial model for managing the European Union’s structural funds in Ukraine by regional policy entities were proposed. These steps encompass the identification of geographical functional ties between regional policy entities that shape a new territory of cooperation going beyond the boundaries of existing administrative-territorial units and forming a new subject of regional policy formation. It implies a functional type of territories with the formation of a new database for programming socio-economic processes of development of local governments in conformity with the objectives of the updated state strategy for regional development of Ukraine. In consonance with the best European experience of seeing regions as a living laboratory for the development of territorial cooperation, measures were recommended to create a living laboratory for the development of the territories of communities of Slobozhanshchyna to develop a mechanism and tools to support functional types of territories at the level of the city of Kharkiv and the Kharkiv Region. There are also further arrangements to create the Kharkiv agglomeration, the Slobozhansk microregion of territorial cooperation and the Dergach subregion. These arrangements and initiatives were addressed publicly within the framework of the annual International Scientific Conference “Economic Development and the Legacy of Semen Kuznets” in 2024 and 2025.