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The aim of the article is to scientifically substantiate the role of modern EU financing instruments in stimulating ecological development. The research methodology is based on the content analysis of ecological development financing instruments in the EU, their comparison and scientific generalization to substantiate further priorities for the implementation of the EU strategy «European Green Deal». The authors have examined the models of management of financial resources in the EU – direct, joint and indirect management. It is found that the EU Member States and their competent authorities develop their own national programs, coordinate the selection of projects, as well as ensure the operational management of such programs and the implementation of payments. The article shows that the most used financial instrument used within the framework of the EU programs and funds for the provision of financial resources are grants. It is determined that recently in some areas of the EU policies (first of all, in regional, entrepreneurial, and innovation) such instruments as budget guarantees and bank financing instruments (loans, credit guarantees, equity investments) have been actively developing, aimed mainly at profitable and economically viable projects. In the current planned financial period from 2021 to 2027, most EU financial programs and funds have an ecological component. At the same time, a number of the EU programs are created specifically for the purposes of sustainable development, greening of production, prevention and adaptation to climate change, as well as environmental protection, including the LIFE program, the Innovation Fund, the Just Transition Fund and the Modernization Fund. The authors show that the instruments for financing ecological development in the EU cover a wide range of potential beneficiaries, which include not only government agencies and the business sector, but also research institutions and public organizations.

The aim of the article is to study the policy of public procurement and the scientific substantiation of its priorities in the context of the implementation of the digital transformation strategy in the EU and in Ukraine. The research methodology is based on the content analysis of the digitalization policy of public procurement used in the practice of both the EU and Ukraine, as well as in its scientific generalization to substantiate the priorities for the implementation of the digital transformation strategy. The authors examined the model of interaction of subjects of the public procurement market in the EU with the use of digital tools. It is found that the harmonized EU rules in the field of application of common digital public procurement instruments are designed to ensure fairness, transparency and non-discrimination in determining participants in public contracts, to which not only EU companies are admitted, but also the representatives of WTO Member States that have signed the Agreement on Government Procurement. The article discloses the stages of introduction of digital public procurement tools in the EU and in Ukraine. It is determined that in the EU, the process of digitalization of public procurement began in the second half of the 2000s with the introduction of an electronic diary of tenders, significantly intensifying in the second half of the 2010s with the adoption of a package of the EU directives in the field of public procurement and the phased introduction of digital tools (invoices, forms, applications for tenders, the European single procurement document, etc.). The current stage of transformation of digital public procurement tools in the EU was marked by the introduction of a single space for these public procurement in the EU from 2023. The priority directions of digital convergence of the public procurement systems of the EU and Ukraine are substantiated, including the development of cooperation tools for joint public procurement, promotion of competition, countering the corruption, as well as strengthening the professionalization of the public procurement systems.

The digital transformation of public administration and public services has become an urgent need for many governments around the world. This article aims to explore the homogeneity and pace of digital transformation of public administration through the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and to identify problems and forecasts of research processes at the EU level. The method of cluster analysis was used to study the similarity of the digital transformation of public administration in the EU. The pace of digitalization of public administration in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic was studied through trend analysis. The results show that the EU countries, according to the level of public administration digitalization, are grouped into five clusters, between which there are significant digital gaps. The COVID-19 pandemic has widened the gaps, potentially impacting the EU's strategy for digitalizing society and establishing e-government. Public e-services usage in 2020 to 2021 is higher than predicted by trend analysis for 2009 to 2019. This suggests an acceleration of digitalization in the EU during the COVID-19 pandemic. The proposed technique can be used to predict the level of digitization of any country or group of countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The transformational 1990s significantly differentiated the regional model of Ukraine, which eventually began to resemble a system of uncontrolled chronic economic decline, as the existing planning and regulatory methods had become redundant, the market-based approaches being not actualized. The methodological vacuum in which Ukraine found itself did not allow regions to solve the existing problems by means of European economic convergence instruments. Despite the fact that more and more theories and concepts appeared in the leading developed countries (regional competitiveness, city- region, beautiful places, creative city, localization, etc.), national science used outdated ideas of planned regulation, inappropriate in market economy. The effect of government policies resembled core measures of the neoliberal model, while maintaining a high degree of administrative centralization.

The article is dedicated to the comprehensive study of the key stages of the evolution of the European Union innovation policy, the conditions and factors of transformation of its priorities, as well as the estimation of the main advantages and disadvantages of implementing its polystructural integration model. It is fixed that in course of its development the EU innovation policy has gone through several qualitatively heterogeneous stages, which tended to the interaction of a number of elements, the combination of which ensured identification of scientific, technological and innovation models of this policy. It is proved that the initial stage of the EU common research policy was based on the development of large international cooperative projects of basic and applied research, investment in scientific infrastructure, improvement of scientific education systems and training. In the second stage, the EU's innovation policy acquired the features of technological effectiveness characterized by the identification of the EU's strategic industrial sectors for global innovation leadership, harmonization of technological standards within the integration group, deepening the scientific division of labor with narrow profile of member states in various technological field, strengthening of international scientific and technical cooperation, technological transfer and commercialization of newly developed technologies, as well as the introduction of a favorable environment for technological development of production and service sectors of the economy. The current stage of community innovation policy reflects innovation practices as a systemic process of continuous generation and commercialization of innovations, focused on building the knowledge economy, improving the infrastructure of commercialization of new technologies, protection of intellectual property rights, involvement of small and medium businesses, and social values. It is outlined that as in line with deepening integration processes in the EU, research and innovation practices have become a priority in the comprehensive strategy of competitive development of the integration community, as confirmed by the constant growth of financial allocations for research and innovation development goals, attraction of more stakeholders to the research work and strengthening of common European research area. The EU's innovation policy has now introduced a regular and polystructural pattern with a clear division of goals and coordination of efforts at the supranational, national and regional levels of its implementation. The open model of EU innovation activity, which tends to the involvement of a wider range of associated countries in the implementation of European cooperation research and innovation projects, significantly triggers the introduction of research activities of domestic institutions of Ukraine, unprecedented opportunities for innovation patterns of national economy growth, as well as finding promising niches in international chains of high-tech industrial production and providing knowledge-intensive services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article investigates contemporary trends of innovation policy of European countries, describes the essence of contemporary mechanisms and tools for supporting local innovative development. The following most powerful tools for facilitating scientific and technical and innovative business activity are discovered: direct support of private R&D, financing of innovative enterprises, governmental and private cooperative scientific and research projects. A trend is identified for decreasing the share of institutional financing of R&D, and increasing of weight of competitive financing of academic institutions. A conclusion is made as for spreading of technologies commercialization processes support, especially on final stages thereof; the share of these has increased in respect of governmental programs focused on early stages of scientific and research projects. An insight is that within the last two decades the tools for facilitating local innovative business activities have been diversified in the EU: alongside with long-term collaborative governmental and private R&D and initiatives for developing innovative science intensive clusters, short-term tools have been significantly spread, such as innovation projects vouchers and science intensive start-ups support. Given that, it is established that traditionally developed toolkit for supporting small and medium enterprises is being complimented with scaled programs of large companies direct financing. A general trend is identified for increasing the weight of collaborative programs, while the share of individual subsidies and grants for R&D and that of companies innovative activity has substantially decreased. Higher effectiveness of start-ups facilitation measures is concluded, as well as that of venture investments, in comparison with individual subsidies. The leading role of start-ups in EU economy is determined by a range of advantages originating from dynamic process of formation thereof, namely producing large number of new ideas, innovative projects diversification, creation of new jobs. However, the key feature of start-ups is that these are indicators of favourable local innovative environment, since fast increase of start-ups and spin-offs number in a given region is an indicator of accumulating "critical weight" in process of forming dynamic innovative clusters. KEYWORDS. Innovation policy, local innovative business activity, mechanisms and tools of supporting local innovation development, commercialization of technologies, scientific and technical collaboration, technologies transfer, science intensive clusters, start-ups, vouchers for innovative projects, competence centres. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]