At the end of June, Professor John Bachtler participated in an International Conference in Lviv, western Ukraine, on 'The Regional Development of Ukraine in an International Context', organised jointly by the Lviv Oblast Administration, the DFID-funded Lviv Development Project, the Institute for Regional Studies and the Regional Studies Association.
In the context of EU enlargement, the aim of the Conference was to discuss the emerging challenges and opportunities for regional development in the Ukraine, especially with respect to cross-border co-operation, and the role of regional policy in the new Ukrainian national development strategy. John Bachtler's opening paper to the Conference was entitled "Regional Policy in Europe: International Perspectives", giving an overview of how regional policies in EU member states have been evolving in recent years.