Today, on 15 March, the fifth season of the project “Public Diplomacy Studies 5.0” has started at the Borys Havrylyshyn Institute of International Relations of the Western Ukrainian National University! This time it is the certificate programme “European Studies: Diplomacy, Politics, Law, Economics, Communications”. It will be a kind of European integration marathon lasting 2 months (from 15 March to 15 May 2023).

Our first speaker was Yuliia Lykhach, Director of the High School of Public Governence, PhD in Public Governence. We talked about European integration through the prism of the experience of EU candidate countries.

Mrs.Yuliia focused on the legal acts that regulate the acquisition of the EU candidate status. In particular, she mentioned the Maastricht Treaty (EU Treaty); the European Council Declaration in Copenhagen (Copenhagen criteria) and the Framework Agreements for negotiations with special conditions for each candidate state. The speaker also briefly outlined the main 5 stages of the EU accession process (consultative, assessment, negotiation, ratification, implementation) and 12 important steps in terms of the sequence of actions and the exercise of powers by individual EU institutions.

However, the discussion focused on the unique experience of the EU candidate countries. In particular, they examined the peculiarities of the process of integration of Albania, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Turkey into the EU through the prism of diplomatic, political and economic dimensions. They also talked about Ukraine’s European integration experience and its candidate status for EU membership.

“Today, the level of political and public support for Ukraine in all EU countries is unprecedentedly high. In recent months, EU member states have been actively supporting and providing Ukraine with coordinated political, financial, material and humanitarian support. Therefore, this is not only a huge level of support, but also of trust,” summed up Yuliia Lykhach in her speech.

The project is held in a mixed format. The participants include students and teachers from Ukrainian universities, as well as international students, civil servants and local government officials. We are grateful to all our listeners for their high level of trust and interest in European integration. Today, there were more than 150 of us in total (including 115 online and more than 40 in the ZUNU e-resource hall).

The project “European Studies: Diplomacy, Politics, Law, Economics, Communications” was initiated by the Centre of Diplomacy, Security and Democracy (CDSD) of the ZUNU. It is implemented on the basis of the Borys Havrylyshyn Institute of International Relations at the Western Ukrainian National University in cooperation with the GDIP Media Centre, the Centre for Adaptation of the Civil Service to the EU Standards, the High School of Public Governence and the EU Information Centre of ZUNU.