2009 Issue №2

The article describes changes in the cross-border cooperation support in the framework of the EU Regional Policy. The author emphasises the role of the European Neighbourhood Policy in the development of cross-border cooperation with non-EU countries. The article outlines the main obstacles for the development of euroregions at the EU-Russia border and arrives at the conclusion that their future depends on the success of the Russia-EU integration process in general.

The article offers a pragmatic approach to certain aspects of cross-border regionalisation. The marketing component of Euroregion development and the implementation of cross-border cooperation projects are considered as key directions of the joint activity of cross-border partner-regions. The authors analyse the opportunity to apply the territory brand model to research on the mechanisms of cross-border cooperation and to the elaboration of an efficient development strategy as a promising direction of further study of the cross-border cooperation and regionalisation phenomena.

The Baltic Sea region and the Black Sea area are overlapping regions that have their own political, historical and cultural peculiarities. They belong to the same geopolitical system, within which they are developing two regional cooperation subsystems strongly influenced both by internal political and economic dynamics and by external actors. The aim of this research is to analyse the political and economic factors that influence the cooperation in the Baltic Sea region and the Black Sea area by means of comparative approach, which will help to determine the similarities and differences necessary to give an overview of two strategic areas in the European context.

The article compares the scope of two diplomatic terms, crucial for the contemporary practice of international cooperation. Drawing examples from historical and contemporary documents, the author shows the difference between the settled notion of good-neighbourly relations and the recently introduced one — the European Neighbourhood Policy. The ENP ab initio absorbs the old term, which characterises the symmetric relation of international agents in the framework of the Westphalian system and foregrounds the Euro-centred model of asymmetrical relations. It creates certain difficulties in the development of Russia-EU relations, especially, in terms of Russia’s participation in the European Neighbourhood programmes.