EURINT 2025 INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE
Building tomorrow’s Europe: strategies for integration, growth, and resilience
15-18 May 2025│ Iasi, Romania
2025 EURINT edition was part of a series of events celebrating a quarter-century of academic activity research, and successful partnerships of the Centre for European Studies at Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iași (UAIC), under the motto "25 Years of Excellence in European Studies". The conference explored three interconnected themes: Merging growth and societal needs in the 21st century - The European growth model must evolve to meet contemporary societal demands. This calls for fostering innovation and competitiveness while ensuring that economic policies reflect the broader needs of society, such as sustainable development and equitable access to resources. Incorporating inclusivity and addressing inequality in policymaking - The widening gap between different social and territorial groups requires immediate attention. Policymakers must prioritize inclusivity and start designing frameworks that reduce inequalities, enhance social mobility, and empower marginalized communities. Building territorial resilience: Resilience is fundamental to safeguarding Europe’s future. The conference will address strategies for enhancing the adaptive capacities of regions and communities, focusing on sustainable urban planning, climate adaptation, and economic diversification to mitigate the impacts of future crises. Beyond these core themes, the conference invites discussions on a broader range of topics, including, but not limited to: • the implications of the new political context; • the transformative impacts of digitalization, both socially and territorially; • theoretical and empirical studies on well-being; • catching up with left-behind places; • data governance challenges. EURINT 2025 special sessions [-] The Future of EU Budgeting: Balancing Growth, Innovation, and Social Cohesion (18 May, 2025) Chair: Victor Negrescu, PhD (The National University of Political Studies and Public Administration, Romania) [-] CITY-Focus special session | Urban challenges and transformations amid the green and digital transitions. Towards new forms of urban resilience Chairs: Alexandru Bănică, Cristian Încălțărau, Gabriela-Carmen Pascariu (Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iasi, Romania) [-] SAGES special session | Multidisciplinary approaches to well-being. Analyses and impact policies Chairs: Ramona Tiganasu, Bogdan Ibanescu, Mihaela Clincu (Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iasi, Romania) [-] Business Resilience in AI Era: Strategies for Communication, Engagement, and Decision-Making in Times of Crisis Chairs: Oana Carmen Țugulea; Andreea-Isabella Cinca (m. Moroșanu); Lucian Barbacaru (Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iasi, Romania) [-] About Europe - Young researcher Special session - dedicated to bachelor and master students awarded within the Students scientific sessions in European studies Chairs: Bogdan Ibanescu & Ciprian Alupului (Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iasi, Romania) EURINT 2025 agenda [pdf version]
EURINT 2024 | Debating Europe: new approaches, action
tools and integration scenarios
24-25 May, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iasi
The European Union has been a successful story for many
decades, despite the crises it has faced over time, becoming in
years a pole of attraction for other European countries. In
general, crises have generated a sense of deepening
integration, and the enlargements from EU6 to EU27 were seen
as a natural dynamic of the "(re)integration" of the European
continent, strengthening, with each stage, the EU power and
relevance in the international order. The synergies between the
deepening and the widening mechanisms encouraged to look for
a federal future of the EU as an “ever-closer union”, a “hard
core” of regional and global cooperation, and as a real economic
and political power.
New opportunities and challenges have emerged in 1990s, in
the context of the political transformations in the Central and
Eastern Europe. For the countries from this “liberated” part of
Europe, the accession to the EU has been identified with their
aspirations for freedom, democracy, prosperity and security, a
definitive break from the hegemonic tendencies of Russia. In
the same logic of European unification, the Union has enlarged
from the EU15 to the EU28. The integration of diversity has
been achieved based on the community method and on variable
geometries, successfully applied to previous enlargements.
However, an important transformation of the strategic vision of
the future of the EU has occurred. Although maintaining the
federalist option, with this wave of enlargement, the federalist
future of EU is no longer a widely shared dream and the
differentiated integration looks increasingly obvious.
Lately various crises and shocks which have hit the EU in the
last two decades have shown the limits of the current system.
Additional pressures are generated by the prospect of the Union
enlargement to the countries of the Eastern neighborhood and
the Western Balkans, which has become a priority in the foreign
policy against the background of the war in Ukraine. Therefore,
an even more enlarged, but also a more diverse Union is
foreshadowed in a timeframe, which albeit not yet politically
assumed, already requires a reconsideration of the EU's
strategic agenda.
