Cooperation and Enlargement: Two Challenges to be Addressed in the European Projects―2022 (Studies in Systems, Decision and Control, 500)

In this book, the ERECO-PGV[1] network wishes to make an overview of the cooperation implemented by and in the European Union and to describe the concrete forms they have taken. The issue is to analyze the internal European cooperation between economic actors, politicians, and EU citizens at different levels, but also to focus attention on the external cooperation (neighborhood policies, external policies, and collaborations with international institutions: NATO, OECD, WTO, etc.). Carrying uncompromising attention on this issue means rethinking the European project in light of today's challenges.

From the very beginning, the EU was based on and called for forms of multinational cooperation, bilateral (internal and external) at different levels, involving economic actors, public actors, local authorities, and civil society. The frameworks for this cooperation as well as for the successive enlargements of the EU were drawn up in the context of European negotiations, in particular during discussions on the European Treaties. European values, standards, and rules are embodied in the texts of agreements, resolutions, and European directives and Treaties signed by all member countries. They establish the functioning of European institutions and the framework of democratic life in Europe.

The emergence of current crises (Brexit, COVID-19, migration crisis, non-respect of rule of law rules, refusal of certain member countries to apply the European Charter of Human Rights, etc.) is questioning the project of the European Union and introduced the challenges which should be overcome by the proposal of the new project able to face the internal complexity of the Union and to answer to the pressure of a conflicting international context. What remains of the European ideal affirmed in the treaties of 1957, 1992, and 2007? How to "re-enchant" the common project? Yet, the European Union remains attractive to new candidate countries. How do they read the integration conditions into the EU with regard to their own projects?

Prof. Ghislaine Pellat has a PhD from the University of Grenoble Alpes, France in the field of Management (Information System and Decision Management). She has teaching activities in the field of sales and marketing.  She is in charge of an international Master degree which trains scientific students who wish to get involved in the international trade. Students are coming from all the world. She is also a researcher at the CERAG laboratory of the University of Grenoble Alpes. The interdisciplinary approach of the research is about the risk for the client and the risk for the company in commercial and international approaches. Her research topics are on the relationship with customers in the field of international trading. She published a book about the relationship between sellers and purchasers in different multicultural environments. She is in charge of international cooperation with universities as Beirut (Lebanon), Ho Chi Minh (Vietnam), Kigali (Rwanda). She is President ofERECO #European #Research #Community, a network of European researchers (133 members, 33 Universities) since 2017. Mrs Pellat has published books related to the annual conference of ERECO #European #Research #Community (Editions L’Harmattan, 2021, 2023). Every year, for the annual conference of ERECO, she publishes a paper concerning the topic of companies in Europe. With 5 universities of ERECO, Mrs Pellat is managing a three years program on the European citizenship (Erasmus Programme)

Prof.. Jovan Zafiroski holds a PhD in law from the University of Nice – Sophia Antipolis, France awarded with mention très honorable, a Master’s degree from the College of Europe, Warsaw, Poland, and Bruges, Belgium and a diploma from the Faculty of Law in Skopje. Currently, he works as a full professor at the Faculty of law “Iustinianus primus” Ss. Cyril and Methodius University in Skopje. Before joining the Faculty of law he practiced law and holds a certificate for the attorneys and judiciary exam. Mr. Zafiroski is a member of the editorial board of several journals published in the country and abroad. His research interests are in banking and financial services law and in the monetary law. He is the author of numerous articles published in France, the USA, Russia, India, Croatia, Serbia and N. Macedonia.

Mr. Marian Šuplata is an Associate Professor and Head of the Department for International Management at the Comenius University, Faculty of Management. He spent for study or professional reasons almost a decade in five countries of the European Union: the UK, Germany, Belgium, Portugal, and France. He was previously serving as a Diplomat at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, dealing with Accession Negotiations of Slovakia into the European Union. After he was in charge of preparation a mandate of the first EU Commissioner in the European Commission. Between 2004 and 2010 he was serving in the Cabinet of the EU Commissioner in theEuropean Commission, first (in Romano Prodi Commission) responsible for Enterprise and Information Society, second (in first José M. Barroso Commission) in charge of Education, Training, Culture, Youth, Sports, and Multilingualism. Mr. Šuplata, by being involved in reviewing various Journals and in various projects is the author of numerous articles published across the world in various languages – related mostly to various issues of International Management and Economics and European Affairs, including the EU Enlargement.