WEST UKRAINIAN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY

 The second cycle of training sessions on "European Regionalism: Practical Implementation" for civil servants and local government officials has started at West Ukrainian National University. This year, the target audience of the event included employees of the Main Department of the National Police in Ternopil Oblast. The training is part of the Jean Monnet Programme project 101048216 - REFRAG - ERASMUS-JMO-2021-HEI-TCH-RSCH "Regional Integration: European Benchmark under the Challenges of Global Fragmentation (REFRAG)".

Rector Oksana Desyatnyuk addressed the participants of the event. She noted that the processes of internationalisation and integration, which were initially the prerogative of a small number of countries, have now spread to all continents of the world.

The rapid growth in the number of regional integration associations is a reflection of the popularisation of the ideas of economic openness, intensification of specialisation, and the growing role of TNCs. However, the general optimism about widespread globalisation has not lasted long. Economic crises, trade wars, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the resurgence of neo-totalitarian states are the factors that have split the global community into numerous fragmented alliances that oppose each other and divide zones of influence in the economic and political arenas. Today's European Union, despite all the challenges and internal contradictions, is the only truly "deep" form of regional integration that has emerged from a seventy-year history of mutual compromises and confrontations in Europe. The factors behind the origins of the European community are closely linked to the Second World War and the redistribution of power that followed. It was after the Second World War that Western European states raised questions about the future of Europe. Integration was the only answer found by European politicians and diplomats of the time.

The full-scale war in Ukraine represents a new test of Europe's maturity and cohesion and demonstrates its readiness to stand firm against totalitarianism.

REFRAG project coordinator Maria Lyzun briefed the training participants on the conditions and peculiarities of the Jean Monnet Programme, the structure of the training course and the period of its implementation. The training course lecturers, Ihor Lishchynskyi, Natalia Kravchuk, Vitalina Kurylyak and Kostiantyn Flissak, spoke about the thematic areas of the training and noted the relevance of the event in the context of the current fragmentation of the global space and the aggravation of interregional confrontations.