MECHANISMS OF COOPERATION OF THE EUROPEAN NION WITH POST-COMMUNIST COUNTRIES

Abstract

This article analyzes and explores the mechanisms of cooperation between the European Union and post-communist countries in the implementation of the pre-accession strategy and the Association Agreement with Ukraine, which provided an opportunity to stimulate democratization in Central and Eastern Europe and Ukraine. The article also analyzes the impact of the crisis in the European Union on democratization processes. The trajectories of development of post-communist countries are fundamentally different. The democratic transit, which began in these countries almost simultaneously after almost thirty years of transformation, has led to the formation of various types of political regimes in the post-communist space - from consolidated democracies in Central and Eastern Europe and the Baltics - to overtly autocratic political regimes in Asian republics. Belarus and Russia. On the territory of the countries of the former socialist bloc there are three groups of countries in which quite different political regimes have been formed. Thus, it is possible that both democratization through convergence and regression of Democratization through convergence results in their case depend on which formation of the state is integrated. In this sense, the European Union is an integration entity with a high level of democracy, and therefore the Association Agreement, and subsequently the accession of CEE countries into this integration formation, had a disciplined impact for the development of their democratic institutions.