REFORMING THE PROCESSES OF SOCIAL PROTECTION IN UKRAINE IN THE CONTEXT OF STRATEGIC PRIORITIES FOR GLOBAL INTEGRATION

Abstract

Introduction. The article examines the problems and prospects of reforming Ukrainian social legislation and social policy according to the strategic priorities of global and European integration, as well as the relevant basic EU law norms. The purpose of the article is to summarize the challenges, problems and prospects of reforming Ukrainian social legislation and social policy within the framework of the balanced strategy for a safe implementation of global and European integration aspirations and obligations. Methods. The evolution, modern approaches and problematic issues of the views of the national legislative authorities on the systematization of the foundations of the population social protection and security, their codification in the context of the growing challenges of the shortage of relevant budget and other targeted expenditures, as well as the needs to improve the algorithms for constitutional guarantees’ implementation (especially, those ones provided by the state), and to strengthen the social assistance targeting (primarily, according to the criterion of people’s difficult life circumstances) are outlined. The analysis of the approaches and practices for systematizing the population social protection norms that are promoted in Ukraine in comparison with the basic legislation that operates and develops in the EU is conducted. Results. The increasingly threatening problems of the population natural reproduction in Ukraine, the deterioration of the quantitative and qualitative parameters of the national economy’s labour provision, the strengthening of migration sentiments and processes in society actualize the significant role of social legislation in these negative trends’ consistent mitigating and preventing. The functioning of numerous indicators and benchmarks for providing the population or its targeted categories by certain types of social assistance has been identified in the European Code of social protection. These indicators and benchmarks allow to: increase such expenditures during economic recovery periods; plan tasks and ways of using social levers of economic progress; maintain the validity of socially significant protection norms and standards during recession and stagnation periods. Conclusion. The conditions, features, and criteria for reforming national social protection system within the framework of long-term strategic guidelines for Ukraine’s European and global integration have been determined, taking into account the urgency of socio-economic security of this process (especially, according to the goals of preserving and optimizing the quantitative and qualitative parameters of the population natural and labour potential reproduction, maintaining the competitiveness of the workforce, the economy and its territorial subsystems, Ukrainian business entities in the globalized world of competing national actors).