From Strategic Partnership to Limited Cooperation. Polish-Ukrainian Relations 2015–2019

The previous model of the Polish-Ukrainian relations has come to an end, while the new one is in the phase of statu nascendi. The fundamental contradiction of the basic interests of Kiev and Warsaw has worked out and is still relevant up to date. While Ukraine is looking for ways to integrate with the EU and needs a strong Europe, putting on Paris and Berlin, and thus ipso facto focusing on strengthening the European community, Poland has entered the path of euro-skepticism and quasi-Jagiellonian policy. The concept of a good change has triggered the most serious reorientation in foreign policy of Poland over the last quarter of a century. The amazement of the outside observers, also in Ukraine, might be aroused by the fact that Polish Eastern policy has been pursued by the same circle of experts under the previous government of the PO–PSL coalition as well as under the current government of the PiS-led united right. After several years of the right-wing rule the Ukrainian analysts see the growing degradation process of Poland’s significance in Europe, its increasing confrontational tendencies towards countries outside the European Union, including relations with Ukraine. Primarily, it is a political dimension, though, it can be perceived also as a symbolic dimension and symbols mean a lot in politics. Key words: Poland; Ukraine; European Union; NATO; United States of America; Russian Federation; Intermarium; Germany.

The Phenomena of Fragmentation in the Legal Relations between the Council of Europe and the European Union

This article presents the current issues in the law of international organizations and contemporary international law in general. It is pointed out that the division of international law into branches and institutions, in order to ensure the effective legal regulation of new spheres of relations, led to the emergence of autonomous legal regimes, even within one region, namely on the European continent. To date, these include European Union law and Council of Europe law. It is emphasized the features of the established legal relations between the Council of Europe and the European Union at the present stage. It is determined that, along with close cooperation between regional organizations, there is a phenomenon of fragmentation, which is accompanied by the creation of two legal regimes within the same regional subsystem, proliferation of the international legal norms, institutions, spheres and conflicts of jurisdiction between the European Court of Human Rights and the Court of Justice of the European Union. It is revealed that some aspects of fragmentation can be observed from the moment of establishing relations between the Council of Europe and the European Union, up to the modern dynamics of the functioning of the system of law of international organizations, the law of international treaties, law of human rights. Areas and types of fragmentation in relations between international intergovernmental organizations of the European continent are distinguished. One way to overcome the consequences of fragmentation in the field of human rights is highlighted, namely through the accession of the European Union to the Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms 1950. Considerable attention has also been paid to defragmentation, which is partly reflected in the participation of the European Union in the Council of Europe’s conventions by the applying «disconnection clause». It is determined that the legal relations established between an international intergovernmental organization of the traditional type and the integration association sui generis, the CoE and the EU, but with the presence of phenomenon of fragmentation in a close strategic partnership, do not diminish their joint contribution into the development of the law of international organizations and contemporary international law in general. Key words: defragmentation; European Union; European Court of Human Rights; Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms 1950; conflict of jurisdictions; «disconnection clause»; Council of Europe; Court of Justice of the European Union; fragmentation; sui generis.

Discourse between the Regional and Universal Nature of the Functioning of the League of Arab States

Discussion of the political situation in the modern Arab statehood does not take into account the participation of the League of Arab States in the debates about the inception of the UN system, which arose after the Second World War. At an early stage, this institution did not have a full-fledged universalism, and the integration cooperation of the League of Arab States was confined to a security policy framework. Subsequently, the desire to influence the nature of the ideas and institutions that would shape the United Nations was completely lost. The League of Arab States has also never been committed to the logic of the global south. However, the UN can occasionally be disavowed in the diplomatic processes of the League, which have been tactically used by member states as a channel to maximize regional influence on internal Arab challenges other than the global order. Key words: Arab League; United Nations; Middle East; North Africa; regionalism; sovereignty; universalism; security.

Social Dialects in Modern French Language

The article is a study of phonetic-morphological and semantic-stylistic features of argotic vocabulary in contemporary French language. The work is devoted to questions of structural-semantic and phonetic-morphological peculiarities of the argotic vocabulary in printed mass media. The conducted research has shown that the argotic vocabulary can be considered as a special lexical subsystem of spoken language, which is characterized by a steady tendency to penetrate into higher linguistic levels due to its phonetic-morphological and semantic features. The systematization of phonetic and semantic processes in the argotic dictionary is carried out. We have noticed that argot from a linguistic point of view is an expressive lexical subsystem of spoken language, which is characterized by a large expressive potential and rapid changes in vocabulary and penetrates into higher levels of the French language. From the point of view of modern linguistics, the French language can be viewed in vertical and horizontal sections. Horizontal division is caused by the existence of the dialectal partition of the French language. The vertical division is explained by the existence of social groups that use one or another sociolect. Analyzing the evolution of the definition of argot, we can assume that in its development argot passed the long way from the language taboo to the special lexical subsystem of the literary-spoken language. We have noticed that it is important to distinguish argot and spoken language. In spite of the both scientific and practical interest in the spoken language problem and the emergence of numerous studies that led to the creation of colloquialism as a special section of linguistics, a number of aspects of spoken language (approaches to its identification, differentiation of spoken language and related phenomena) remain insufficiently highlighted. The spoken language (vernacular), according to modern linguistic assertions, occupies an intermediate position between the spoken-literary language, dialects and sociolects. We have noticed that the democratization of the norms of the literary language led to the emergence of a literary-colloquial form of spoken language. Such a combination of literary and spoken language is caused by the nature of social development. Key words: argot; slang; French language; dialect; argotheistic vocabulary; non-normative variant elements; semantics; phonetics; morphology; mass media.

The Eurosceptical and Autonomous Discourses on the Process of European Integration of the Czech Republic

The peculiarities of the attitude of the two leading Czech political parties regarding the process of European integration through the prism of the effectiveness of the protection of national interests at the supranational level are analyzed in the given article. While conducting this study, it was revealed, that once it became clear that accession to the European Union would inevitably require certain national concessions from the Czech Republic, the leading Civic Democratic Party began to declare an increasingly Eurosceptic position. Gradually, EU membership was considered by it only through the prism of realizing the economic interests of the country. Civic Democrats have become even more vigorous opponents of deepening European integration and have strongly opposed the adoption of a common EU Constitution and federalization and have opposed any attempt to alienate part of national sovereignty in favor of the EU, since the Czech Republic joined the European Union. The author emphasizes that the disapproval by CDP of further European integration is explained by the historical fears of many Czechs, who are convinced that the development of the EU in a federal direction is in line with German interests and aspirations to dominate in Europe. The author also stresses on the fact, that the anti-German attitude of the Civic Democrats stems from the history of relations between two nations which have never been friendly and is explained by fears about further economic expansion of Germany in the Czech Republic. It was found that the discourse of Czech Communists on European integration is quite autonomous, because, in contrast to the CDP (and in general to all other parliamentary parties of the country), which although remains critical of the EU, but it does not question the Czech Republic membership in the European Union, the Communist Party does not consider any prospects for the functioning of the EU at all, and it does not consider the expediency of Czech Prepublic membership in it. Key words: Czech Republic; European integration; Civic Democratic Party; Communist Party of the Czech Republic and Moravia; Euroscepticism; Autonomist discourse.

«Ukrainian Issue» in Russian Identity Policy

An analytic approach is designed to link foreign and identity policies reveals policymaker’s the worldviews and beliefs. Identifying a link makes it possible to understand a policy decision that cannot be explained by the rational choice or long-term interest categories. It is obvious that the decisions on annexation of Crimea, the resolution of the armed conflict in the East of Ukraine are difficult to explain only through the lens of geopolitical revanchism of the Russian Federation. The current state of Russian-Ukrainian relations is determined by the conflict of identities. Both Ukraine and the Russian Federation have departed from the logic of the post-Soviet state and are trying to create future-oriented political projects. In the armed conflict, the Ukrainian political project is building on an anti-Russian basis, and its success depends on further distance from Russia. The Russian political class also pursues a policy negativizing the image of a neighboring state, creating narratives about the artificiality of the modern Ukraine’s borders and the extreme weakness of its institutions (failed state). At the same time, it is actively promoting the idea of Ukrainians and Russians are «one people». This «big idea» is placed in official discourse to please the nationalists, does not so much justify the Putin’s actions in Ukraine, but shapes the future Russian policy in the «Ukrainian issue». Resolving identity conflicts will help to shape modern political nations that will define the geographical boundaries of their states. It is important for Ukraine that the Ukrainian political nation can influence the Russians’ perceptions the possible borders of their own state. Key words: identity; foreign policy; political nation; borders; narrative; official discourse; Ukraine; Russian Federation.

Problems of Integration of Belarus and Russia: prerequisites, trends, consequences

The article is devoted to the problem of Belarusian-Russian integration. The author attempted to analyze the nature and specifics of the Belarusian-Russian rapprochement. We determined that in the beginning of the 1990s it was the Belarusian side that initiated the integration processes. However, starting from the 2000s, Russian initiatives did not coincide with the interests of the Belarusian leadership, which led to further contradictions in bilateral relations. It is proved that at the present stage neither Belarusian nor Russian society is interested in unification into the Union State. It is noted that the current crisis in relations between Minsk and Moscow is not economic but political in nature and can threaten the destabilization of the situation in Belarus and can lead to further escalation. It is established that in parallel with integration, processes related to the expansion of cooperation with other countries are taking place in Belarus, the search for investments that are aimed at decreasing the political and economic influence of Russia. Key words: Republic of Belarus; Russian Federation; Belarusian-Russian integration; the Union State; Belarusian sovereignty; deepening of integration; crisis of integration.

Comparative Analysis of Tax Policy Indices of EU Countries, Central Europe Countries and Ukraine

The article analyzes the tax policies of EU member states, Central European countries and Ukraine for the period 2005–2018, in particular: the level of tax revenues, profit tax, other taxes on business, taxes on income, profits and capital gains, taxes on goods and services, labor tax and contributions, time to prepare and pay taxes, number of tax payments. As a result of the study, we see signs of convergence in tax policies of Ukraine and EU member states, especially since 2014 (after the Revolution of Dignity in Ukraine). Tax policy trends over recent years in Ukraine are most in line with those of post-socialist Central European countries. This may be a sign that Ukraine is following a similar path to tax policy reforms, as is the case of Central European countries while integrating into European Union. The important issue for Ukraine is equitable distribution of tax pressure on business (optimize) and individuals (weaken) in order to move closer to EU indicators. Key words: tax policy; tax revenues; taxation; budget; economy of Ukraine; European Union; Central European countries.

Phraseological Units and Their Transformations

The peculiarity of French phraseologisms is that they are frequently used in the language of scientific, business and journalistic style. These are expressions from ancient literature, Greek and Latin phraseologies without translation. The construction of phrases assumes certain types and means of syntax, semantics and grammatical features of components, lexical and stylistic differentiation of components. The main role in the formation of the utterance is given to the verb, since it expresses the mode of action (punitive, conditional ...), its completeness or incompleteness, conditionality or unconditionality. In addition to grammatical meanings, the verb assumes its own semantics i.e. compatibility of the verb with nouns, adverbs or prepositions. An important role is played by the phenomenon of the propagation of the value of components or components of phraseology, when additional components enhance or actualize the fundamental value of phraseology and add more expressiveness to the given phraseological unit. Particular attention is given to phrases in which the internal form is conditioned by the use of prepositions, conjunctions, which serve to convey various circumstantial meanings. That is, additional components actualize the fundamental importance of phraseologism. Key words: phraseologies; literal meaning; idioms; images.

Ukraine–NATO: State and Prospects of Cooperation Development

Сurrent relations of Ukraine with NATO and prospects for their development to develop a common defense and security policy are considered. It is noted that the aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine, its illegal annexation of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, waging a «hybrid war» against it, military intervention in the eastern regions of Ukraine, constant military, political, economic and information pressure from Russia necessitate Ukraine’s search for more effective guarantees. NATO remains the most influential security organization, so political and military cooperation with it is vital for Ukraine. Today, NATO’s European policy focuses mainly on security issues, as well as on enhancing dialogue with both member countries and candidate countries. The definition of modern features of NATO’s European and Euro-Atlantic policy and prospects for the development of Ukraine’s new security policy are relevant. The purpose of this article is to analyze the current relationship between Ukraine and the Alliance and their development prospects. The Concept of Improving Public Awareness of Ukraine’s Cooperation with NATO during 2017–2020 approved by the President of Ukraine on February 21, 2017 in order to increase public support for state policy in the field of Euro-Atlantic integration and the level of trust of Ukrainian citizens in NATO as a key institution in strengthening international security is analyzed. The results of sociological research on Ukraine’s membership in NATO are presented, which reflect the dynamics of public support for Ukraine’s membership in NATO. Key words: NATO-Ukraine; cooperation; security; sociological data; Ukraine’s membership in NATO.