Bilateral cooperation between Ukraine and EU member states on labor migration: current status and prospects for development

The article reveals the issues of modern bilateral legal regulation of labor migration between Ukraine and EU member states. Bilateral cooperation can be considered the most effective, because it takes into account the actual problems between the participants and is focused on specific subjects. The existing agreements are analyzed, their common and distinctive features are singled out, and the advantages and disadvantages of such agreements are revealed. The author substantiates the conclusion in the article that the Association Agreement does not grant Ukrainian citizens the right to free employment on the territory of EU member states and to free movement within the EU for this purpose. Nothing in the Association Agreement can be interpreted as such that acts as a basis for free employment of Ukrainian citizens. The author has analyzed the agreements that are currently in force with the member states of the European Union, and based on this analysis, he derived the author’s classification, which divides the agreements according to their key characteristics. According to the criterion, author distinguished four types of agreements: cooperation agreements (Belgium); migration flow management agreements (Spain); agreements on mutual employment of citizens and labor activity (Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Czech Republic); temporary migration agreements (Portugal). The shortcomings of the relevant agreements and ways to improve the future content of such agreements have been identified. The author established interrelation between the agreements concluded in the same period and also allocated the questions which should be fixed in the future bilateral agreements. The article argues that international treaties governing the protection of the rights of migrant workers and employment regulate the basic procedural issues of employment of foreigners in their territory, the requirements for them, as well as the rights he is granted if such requirements are met. The author also identifi es ways to develop bilateral cooperation between Ukraine and EU member states, paying special attention to the following areas: development of the international legal framework with the member states of the Union; institutional cooperation; implementation of international and European norms and standards.