EURINT 2017 European Union at crossroads: building resilience in
times of change
19-20 May, 2017
Centre for European Studies, “Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University of
Iaşi, Romania
CONFERENCE RATIONALE & TOPICS
CONFERENCE RATIONALE & TOPICS
Today’s European Union (EU) is being confronted with both economic and
political challenges. The economic challenges are associated with the
post-crisis recovery, while the political challenges stem from the rise of
nationalism which has recently hit the EU. Against this background, the
Centre for European Studies within Alexandru Ioan Cuza University, is
organizing the sixth edition of EURINT, which will focus on the resilience
capacity of the EU to react to these challenges.
Resilience is a concept which has increasingly been used in the general
public discourse, as well as within the EU debates in relation to economic
development, but also to the security and defence issues. Moreover,
various organizations and agencies, research institutes and experts in
various areas are proposing resilience analyses as being the most
appropriate alternative to replace other key concepts in designing the
European and national policies. This is due to the resilience capacity to
accommodate the multitude of factors and conditions that influence long-
term growth and development in a systemic approach. After the recent
economic crisis, most of the European countries did not manage to get
back on the growth path, and they are still facing a sluggish growth.
Understanding the factors that foster / undermine economic resilience is
the key to a faster recovery.
Besides the economic issues, further challenges have emerged, testing
the EU’s cohesion. The refugee crisis forced the EU to deal with huge
refugee inflows escaping conflict in their country, which has generated
internal concerns over how to deal best with resettling people. Soon after,
the Brexit referendum has further challenged the EU’s internal stability
and questioned the viability of the European project on the long-term.
Therefore, faced with the current economic crisis affecting the European
economies, and considering the pitfalls of the overall integration process
and its own legitimacy, the Union itself must become not only ’smarter’,
more inclusive and more sustainable, but also more resilient, more
capable of reacting to different internal and external shocks.
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CES Working papers (special issue)
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EURINT proceedings