Crisia LII, supliment nr. 2, 2022
Actors, Mechanisms and Levels of Influence in the EU Decision-Making
(Proceedings of the Jean Monnet International Conference, Oradea, 26 - 28 May 2022)

I. European Policies Formulation Process, between the European and National Levels: Actors, Interactions, Mechanisms


1. George Gabriel BOLOGAN

A UNITED EUROPE FROM A DEFENSIVE PROSPECTIVE

In the last decades, the European Union was challenged by many external and internal factors, on different levels. From a defensive point of view, the Ukraine crisis is unique for the present century because, even if Ukraine is an external actor on the international scale, the war that was discussed between it and Russia determined the aparition of many questions from EU states, most of all being linked with the concept of security. This paper analyze the visionary conception of the Italian statesman Alcide De Gapseri, in order to underline the need for unity from a defensive and security prospective in the Old Continent, of nowdays international and European context.

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2. Dacian DUNA

RULING AN UNRULY WORLD: A CRITICAL ASSESSMENT OF THE EUROPEAN UNION’S STRATEGIC COMPASS FOR SECURITY AND DEFENCE

Since the EU Security Strategy of 2003 (entitled “A Secure Europe in a Better World”) to the EU Global Strategy of 2016 (entitled “Shared Vision, Common Action: A Stronger Europe”), the European Union has overused and sometimes misused bold foreign and security policy statements to booster its relatively modest role in global politics. One can recall previous commitments, such as the Headline Goals (2003, 2010) that illustrate this. The EU has provided interesting pieces of rhetoric, but was it able to close the gap between ideals and reality? Now, literally under fire, the European External Action Service has produced another document that promises a lot. This article is assessing the validity of the ‘Strategic Compass’ under the current European geopolitical realities stemming from the Ukraine war that seem to confirm a tendency toward the return to power politics.

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3. Carmen UNGUR-BREHOI

UE FOREIGN THREATENINGS: BANNING INFORMATION WEAPONS OR CONTROLLING THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION?

An “unprecedented” sanction was announced by the European Union, as a response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Some Russian state media – Russia Today and Sputnik – were banned in the European Union space, in order to cease their toxic and harmful disinformation in Europe. Google Europe also blocked YouTube, Instagram and Facebook channels associated with pro-Kremlin Russian media, used as propaganda weapons. The measures were also applied in Romania. Some see the sanction as a threatening to the freedom of information, transformed even for some former journalists into a “witch hunt”. Russia accuses of “fake news” and blocks other international media.

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4. Ludmila ROȘCA

DILEMMA NATIONAL INTEREST – COMMUNITY INTEREST: ACTORS, PRIORITIES, STRATEGIC OBJECTIVES

The author of the study aims to correlate the national interest with the community interest in the context of the essential changes taking place in the region at the beginning of 2022. In war conditions, the actors of the daily political process verify the elements of their conception of the world. The individual is placed in extreme situations, the way out of which is guided by his culture, by the level of manifestation of his consciousness. The national interest embodies the people’s values, which serve the strategic goal: peace, stability, security, and prosperity of citizens. Being peaceful and sound in our way, in conditions of war, we find that we are not prepared to defend our ancestral land, our perennial values.
Is the Community interest radically different from the national interest? The author gives us a negative answer, supported by several arguments. The Lisbon Treaty sets out the elements that must underpin the European Union’s action at the international level. „The Union’s action on the international stage shall be based on the principles which inspired its creation, development and enlargement and shall promote: democracy, the rule of law, the universality and indivisibility of human rights and fundamental freedoms, respect for human dignity, the principles of equality and solidarity. compliance with the principles of the
Charter of the United Nations and international law”.
In conclusion, the author mentions: that the national interest of the Republic of Moldova and the interests of the European Union are not in conflict; they are complementary. This conclusion’s awareness and promotion is a strategic goal for all political, social, and cultural institutions in the Republic of Moldova. The security of the citizens, threatened many times today, imposes new requirements on the institutions responsible for the education and vocational training of young people in the Republic of Moldova. Unfortunately, we have social and political groups that continue to work to dismantle society, to support the aggressor of the 21st century. Under challenging conditions, Moldovans have shown that they are the bearers of humanity, the common good, and fairness.

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5. Dana PAIU

THE NEUTRALITY OF THE REPUBLIC OF MOLDOVA – A SOLUTION TO PEACE OR AN IMPEDIMENT TO SECURITY

Neutrality at first glance resembles a first-grade math formula, meaning you are neutral you have nothing to do with anyone, but this perception of neutrality is only understandable to everyone, in reality, things are much more complicated and much harder to solve. When I say neutrality, most people consider the example of Switzerland, without realizing that any declared neutrality must be recognized internationally: by neighboring states, allies and partners.
The Republic of Moldova has declared its status of neutrality through Article 13 of the Constitution due to the Transnistrian conflict, but this neutrality has not gained international recognition and if we look at the case of Ukraine in conflict with the Russian Federation, we realize that the formula of neutrality it is a fragile one that does not guarantee the security of the country. In the case of the Republic of Moldova, we have a projection of the situation in Ukraine, when the only natural solution for ensuring national security would of course be to join NATO. The NATO umbrella can guarantee national security in the current context when neighboring countries are in a state of open conflict and may threaten the independence and sovereignty of the country.

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6. Hilal ZORBA BAYRAKTAR

THE ROLE OF THE EU PUBLIC’S PERCEPTION OF SECURITY ON POLICY MAKERS

The European Union (EU), which emerged as a product of the common mind as a result of the crises in Europe and the World Wars, has aimed to ensure peace and security in Europe since its establishment. The EU is trying to fulfill this mission as a political actor. Besides, the EU, which has a supranational feature, has a structure that the Member States of the Union decide on by consensus, thanks to its institutional structure. As a matter of fact, the Council, Commission and Parliament take an active role in this decision-making process. Members of these bodies are also citizens of member states. When this situation is taken into consideration, in this study, the role of EU public’s perception of security on policy makers is discussed. However, it is known that each member state has its own national concerns and therefore it is not possible to create an objective security perception. In order to create a regular set of information on this subject, the EU Commission is trying to measure the security concerns of both the EU public and the citizens of the member states separately by conducting Eurobarometer survey at certain periods. In this direction, another subject that the study explores is what the threats are in the perception of the EU public and whether or not action is taken against these threats. However, the order of importance may vary according to countries and years. In order to find answers to these questions, Transatlantic Trends and Eurobarometer surveys were used. Apart from this, thanks to the literature review, which is one of the qualitative research methods, the articles written on this subject were used as primary and secondary sources. Analysts mostly state that negative public attitudes are not included in the decision-making processes and liberal policies are followed. However, it should not be forgotten that the members of the Council, Commission and Parliament also have national concerns due to the countries they belong to. As a result, it will be revealed what kind of policies followed by policy makers and how they respond to these perceptions in line with the security perceptions of the EU public that have changed over the years. Although there is no unity in practice, it is possible to say that the measures taken and the regulations made, especially regarding irregular migration and terrorism, reflect the concerns of the public.

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II. NATIONAL AND SUB-NATIONAL ACTORS: CHANNELS AND INSTRUMENTS FOR PARTICIPATION TO/AND FOR INFLUENCING THE EU DECISION-MAKING PROCESS


1. Lorena-Valeria  STUPARU

DEFINING EUROPEAN CITIZENSHIP ON THE PUBLIC STAGE AND ITS RELEVANCE IN THE PRIVATE SPHERE

If being European means, in terms of culture, to recognize yourself in a pattern of Europeanness, in something from the field of universality which also include individual differences – being a European citizen means more than a subjective identification. More specifically, it means a new political and civic identity which can be found in institutional realities and within a specific area whose recent changes occur at both real and virtual levels. In this respect, among the concepts that have contributed to transforming the geographical and historical Europe into a political Europe, the european citizenship is distinguished by a functionality whose utopian connotations ennobles it.
First point of the Article 8 of Maastricht Treaty states that “Any person holding the nationality of a Member State is citizen of the Union” and the Treaty of Amsterdam (1997) added: “Citizenship of the Union complements national citizenship and shall not replace it”. Beyond these “technical” issues European citizenship can also be considered in terms of philosophical cosmopolitanism. This new positioning of the individual in the political form of European Union is a real manifestation of “citizen of the world”, concept which belongs to political and cultural value system of European space.
Compared with the active spectators wishing to communicate their opinions more or less critical about the political, economic and social “show”, the citizen of a political entity has the right to manifest itself in a public space, which is not only a rational place for debate important topics.
Does the “stage” model of public space allow the real commitment of the European citizen in relation to the institutions and in the management of individual rights? This is one of the questions I try to answer in this paper.

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2. Ana REBELI

EUROPEAN CITIZENSHIP, BETWEEN AN IDENTITY CRISIS AND HUMAN RIGHTS. A COMPARATIVE APPROACH

The present paper approaches a topic that refers to one of the most important actors inside of the EU, which is the European citizen. European citizenship can and is an asset, not only in times of crisis, therefore our interest is in discussing the matter of human rights at the intersection with the rights of European citizens. We are operating with concepts that should become well-known by all citizens; therefore the “tone” of our paper makes use of the snowball effect process in order to provide a frame that could facilitate better understanding of basic concepts that are fundamental to the idea of identity in the context of EU as a whole.
The way in which human rights and European citizen’s rights have emerged, is different but what helps us in our analysis is the fact that they don’t exclude themselves and instead, they add another layer of security, which is very much needed nowadays. The contemporary desire of achieving a more consolidated union and having peace as an end goal does put a hard to handle effort on all member countries and those expected to join in the next following years. Civic education is what can help us achieve this goal but as matters continue to evolve, there is a possibility of an identity crisis amongst European citizens and (maybe) the rest of the world.
To what extent is the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, helping citizens of EU member countries, feel that they are indeed part of the EU and how can we consolidate this feeling? This is the research question that guided us in our study of the human protection rights mechanism inside of the European Union. Theoretical considerations are being used in our comparative approach but due to the extended opportunity of diving into further depth with an extensive analysis, we suggest some alternative paths for future scientific endeavours.

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3. Alina-Maria BALAJ

THERE IS NEED FOR A FEMALE FUTURE IN EU?

The present paper analyzes the importance of the role of women in the EU community, in direct link with the responsabilities that they have for the society, from a personal, but also from a professional point of view. How can influence this matter the process of EU decision-making, is also another prospective proposed by this paper.

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4. Simona FER

FAMILY STABILITY ACROSS EUROPEAN COUNTRIES, IN THE CONTEXT OF POLITICAL AND SOCIAL CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES

Over the past decades, the European countries have faced a wide diversity of family trends, besides the traditional families consisting of a male breadwinner, a female housekeeper and several children. And nevertheless, Europeans come out surprisingly conservative, considering that married-with-children formula is the ideal lifestyle for an overwhelming majority, despite the liberating swinging years sixties, when emancipation and individualization spread from the Great Britain towards the entire Europe. It is also obvious that family structures in the EU member states vary, reflecting cultural and normative differences. The concept of a family comprises several meanings ranging from the well-known definition of the family as a nucleus of society, consisting of two married adults and their biological children, to extended networks of adults and children who may or may not live in the same household. Historically, there have been significant differences between countries within the European Union member states in terms of typical family structures. A relationship within a family not only means close connection between people or just a blood relation, but it is also a fundamental support for cohesiveness and affection among family members practicing mutual trust and respect. We can also notice a de-standardization of the family life course in the European member states followed by a fast decrease in fertility to less than two children per woman, this happening in mostly German speaking countries, while Anglo-Saxon countries and Scandinavian ones were and remain the high-fertility regions of Europe. However, family in nowadays society is faced with a lot of challenges. There is a serious concern about the high rate of divorce, a stronger wish of independence of spouses, an increasing number of single parent families, a decreasing authority of parents over their children, a wider incidence of stepparents, but mostly the so popular practice of non-marital unions. The present study also focuses on policies and methods that the European Union institutions provide in the favor of good standards family life, education, health care and protection.

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5. Dan APĂTEANU

EUROPEAN GOVERNANCE: A DEMOCRATIC DEFICIT?

The paper starts by presenting the EU institutional framework. First, it introduces the multilevel governance concept. Then it goes on by stating the reasons why some people argue there is a lack of democracy, as there lacks the possibility of contestation for the measures taken by the main EU institutions, the ever expanding powers of the nonelected institutions, as it is for example the European Commission, or the legislative process that poses the problem of discontinuity.
The agency level context is another possibility to analyse the EU decision making process, by inquiring how the administrative staff is involved in this process; also, there are being presented some specific cases. I end by showing what are the possibilities for reforming the institutional framework, in order to address the above mentioned issues, especially to bring EU closer to its citizens.

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6. Alina-Carmen BRIHAN

GOVERNING THE LOCAL, INFLUENCING THE EU: FRAMEWORK, KNOWLEDGE, MECHANISMS

The present European Commission has placed the European democracy as one its priorities for the 2019-2024 mandate. But its mandate was challenged by various crises (COVID-19, BREXIT, war at its borders in Ukraine, etc.), and by the EU’s and Member States’ subsequent efforts in order to recover and to deal with the new situations. Therefore, these last years’ problems and transformations have put a considerable pressure on the officials from all the levels (European, national, regional and local) of the EU multilevel governance, not only regarding their decisions taken inside their countries, but also for their common decisions at EU level.
The objective of the present paper is to approach EU democracy’s trends and perspectives, through a focus on both the local and regional level and that of the EU, analyzed from the point of view of their representatives’ attibutions, means of interaction with each other, and of the traditional and new democratic mechanisms that have been created, in order to bring the EU closer to its citizens, but also for stimulating the inclusion of the citizens’ voice, and of their nearest elected representatives – the local and regional authorities – in the EU policies’ formulation.

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7. Dominik SZCZEPAŃSKI

EUROPEAN INSPIRATION FROM THE „SHADOW CABINET”

In modern democracies, political parties play a crucial role. They are usually the link between the rulers, the parliament and the citizens. The internal politics of European (and other) countries very often depends on the activity of the main political parties, which participate in both electoral competition and power-sharing, while those who do not participate in the governing process develop various political strategies aimed at bringing them closer to power in the next parliamentary elections. One such strategy is an adaptation modeled on the British informal institution of a shadow cabinet appointed by the
largest opposition party.
The aim of the paper is to present the European inspirations for the „shadow cabinet”, to show how it was defined in different countries and to answer the following questions: what functions did „shadow cabinets” have and how did they differ from other opposition parties having their parliamentary representations?

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8. Gabriela GOUDENHOOFT

REFLECTIONS ON POLICYMAKING AND THE ACTIVISM OF THE EUROPEAN COURT OF JUSTICE

The guarantor of the legitimacy of the European Union, the European Court of Justice, the institution that has taken on the task of providing the umbrella for the legality of EU institution building and policies, is often questioned about its role in EU governance. It could be argued that the ECJ itself has issues of legitimacy. It is, first of all, about functional legitimacy, the issue being primarily related to the jurisprudence of the ECJ (how to receive and assume) from the perspective of national judges, individual judgments and even the status of the Court.
The activism of the ECJ, as well as the political and constitutional impact of its decisions, continue to be discussed and sometimes challenged.
Over the years, the legitimacy of the EU Court of Justice has been approached from various perspectives. Most of these discussions focused on moral issues regarding the competence offered by the ECJ through the text of the treaties and the degree of deviation from them (text-standard) or value criteria: impartiality versus political commitment of the Court (moral-ideal standard). From this perspective, the Court could either embrace a strongly active image, with a high degree of subjectivity and freedom of interpretation, versus a practical profile immobilized in the texts of the treaties. Of course, the limit can be set only against an abstract normative ideal of „correct” exercise of the judicial function. It is often based on personal beliefs and philosophy, often culturally determined, beliefs about what judges should or should not do. This topic has often been debated with the prospect of an image of Europe’s federal future, which would solve the dilemma, even if not necessary to the satisfaction of all parties.

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9. Natalia GAVRILENCO

THE CONCEPT OF EXTRAORDINARY EVALUATION OF JUDGES IN THE REPUBLIC OF MOLDOVA – STRATEGY FOR ALIGNMENT WITH EUROPEAN UNION STANDARDS

In this study, the author refers to judicial independence. Article 6 of the Republic of Moldova Constitution expressly states that: „… the legislative, executive and judicial powers are separated and cooperate in the exercise of their prerogatives …” Thus, the state offers judges a special status and requires the justice system to show responsibility.
There is no clear and effective mechanism for assessing the integrity of judges, which could ensure favourable conditions for achieving the proposed objectives. Thus, the authorities proposed a new concept for the extraordinary evaluation of judges. In this context, the aim of the investigation is: to determine whether this new procedure is in line with European Union law, including analyzing the case of Albania.
The current concept of extraordinary evaluation of judges includes the creation of the monitoring mission, evaluation commissions, and creating a separate board of appeal. The issue of this subject is updated at the time of the analysis of the negative opinion of the Venice Commission on the concept.
In conclusion, the author mentions the need to address the concept of special assessment for the state of the Republic of Moldova in the context of the latest events of the application for membership in the European Union.

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III. LOCAL, REGIONAL AND NATIONAL POLITICAL AGENDAS – ONE OR DIFFERENT STRATEGIES FOR PROMOTING THE NATIONAL INTERESTS, AT THE EU LEVEL?


1. Alina STOICA, Luminița ȘOPRONI

PARADIPLOMACY OF CITY AS EUROPEAN AND GLOBAL PLAYER

The beginning of the millennium has been influenced by a visible acceleration of the globalization process, which has had a number of political, economic, strategic and military as well as cultural consequences. Massive changes have marked international relations, triggering new paradigms of global reorganization, of reconfiguring the architecture of politics and society, changing the relations of forces between states and markets. The balance of power has changed. „Where states were once the masters of the markets, now the markets are the ones that, in many key matters, lead the national governments.”
The authority of states, once unwavering, is now transferred either to international institutions or to regions or cities, facing a partial denationalization of global and European policies. It is proven that city leaders are increasingly able to make diplomatic efforts and create transnational networks, serving the well-being of citizens and even the national development of the state they belong to. This phenomenon is called by specialists paradiplomacy or parallel diplomacy.
Its involvement and impact predominate in education, health, climate change, waste management or transportation, etc. The concept is closely related to the smart city, because such a city that understands to use culture and identity in support of its position on the international / European map, for the welfare of its citizens and raising the standard of living is the city of the 21st century.
The paper is an update on European and global realities and brings more knowledge to those interested in European integration and strengthening the idea of European unity.

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2. Florentina CHIRODEA, Constantin ȚOCA, Ioana BORDEIANU

ACTORS AND LEVELS OF RELATIONSHIPS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF CROSS-BORDER REGIONS. CASE STUDY: BIHOR AND HAJDU BIHAR COUNTIES

At the level of border regions operate a series of models and structures of cross-border cooperation, all these being built on the basis of levels of relationships between various public, private or non-governmental actors. The construction of cross-border regions is thus closely linked to cross-border cooperation, which must be understood as cooperation between at least two entities located along a common border. The European Commission has advocated a long time for „cooperation for development” to support disadvantaged border regions, in the Centre and Eastern part of the continent. Despite the progress made, there are still some obstacles created by existing national legal and administrative frameworks that have a direct impact on the lives of border area residents.
The new approach to regional development creates the promotion of networks between different urban centres and favours the complementarity and individualisation of each region, placing them at the centre of European strategies. In this context, the study aims to analyse the intensity of different types of cross-border relations and the involvement of regional actors in the deep integration of regions corresponding to NUTS III administrative territorial units, Bihor (RO), Hajdu-Bihar (HU), based on cross-border integration models and indicators developed by Castañer, Jańczak and Martín-Uceda.

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3. Cosmin CHIRIAC

EU’S TERRITORIAL COHESION POLICIES AND THE IMPLICATIONS OF THE TEMPORAL DIMENSION IN
POLYCENTRIC DEVELOPMENT. A BRIEF OVERVIEW

It no longer needs to be said that polycentric development has become an important topic for the European Union (EU), for quite some time already, and the speciality literature responded in kind. It is analysed at different scales, for different geographic areas, categorised, measured in different manners and analysed for its supposed benefits, yet to be proven, as far as the speciality literature seems to show1.
The purpose of this research is to look at polycentric development from a perspective that, at first glance, doesn’t seem to have the focus in any of the existing research papers but seems important considering that we’re talking about development. Development implies changes and changes take time. Thus, the focus of this research article is time and what it means for polycentric development.
To get a general idea regarding the implications of the temporal dimension in polycentric development, we’ll first look at some of the most relevant research papers, to understand how and if time was analysed. Further on, the temporal dimension is considered taking into account scale, categories, geographic area and some of the quantitative and spatial methods, proposed so far, by the speciality literature.
Conclusions drawn upon this overview highlight the implications of the temporal dimension in the measurement of polycentric development and the potential outcomes in different scenarios.

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4. Luminița ȘOPRONI, Alina STOICA

THE INVOLVEMENT OF LOCAL AUTHORITIES IN CREATING THE CITY BRAND

The local actors in Oradea, through the joint actions performed during the last years, managed to position the city successfully as both tourist and business destination of Romania, relying on several competitive advantages. These advantages, on which the city’s brand relies, are real, expressing the attributes and values of the urban space, and meet all the conditions necessary to contribute to the formation and dissemination of a clear, unique and differentiated image of the city. Part of the advantages are given, while others have been created, thereby adding value to the city and confirming the concern of local actors for the growth and development of the city.

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5. Ioana BORDEIANU, Constantin ȚOCA, Florentina CHIRODEA

THE IMPORTANCE AND THE VALUE OF AUTHORITY AND RESPONSIBILITY IN THE LAW ENFORCEMENT AGENCIES

According to The Copenhagen Declaration, the strategies for training and mobility are essential for promoting the capacity of employment, social integration and personal development and one of the priorities of this declaration is intensifying the support for developing the competences and sectorial qualifications. Dealing professionally with the differences between the amount of theory and practice in law enforcement agencies / border police training we can say that both knowledge and experience have a real chance to develop only while being settled in a mixture that gives the community they are functioning in better results. Cadets must learn to combine theory with practice through their own actions. Geared towards the EU situation, the concept of authority and responsibility, which is anchored in training and practice, provides a better orientation towards practicability in the police / border police work. The paper argues for a comprehensive understanding of young officer duties from the perspective of training, which impacts the goal of situational awareness and integrated training. We provide the argument, that one of the important police / border police officer’ duty is authority and responsibility and we focus on the specific nature of the activities for a better understanding of this context-dependent complexity.

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6. Cristina TULBU-FRUNZE

THE EUROPEAN EDUCATION AREA: STRATEGIC OBJECTIVES AND PRIORITIES

The European Union cooperation in education and training has developed in several areas that are now well established. The best-known example is probably the Bologna Process, which led to the establishment of the European Higher Education Area.
The Copenhagen Declaration gave impetus to cooperation in education and training. It was accompanied by two strategic framework agreements for European cooperation in education and training (ET2010 and ET2020).
The review of the expiry of the second cooperation framework – ET 2020 – has shown some positive trends, as the number of young children in early education and graduates has increased. However, the number of underperforming 15-year-olds remains high, and low adult participation in learning.
The European Commission, the EU Council and the European Parliament agree that cooperation in education and training must be strengthened. The Commission outlined its vision for a European area of education in three communications, which shows that this is still ongoing. The Council, on the other hand, has approved another framework for cooperation until 2030, which aims to support the implementation of such an area. The conclusions of the Education Council of May 2021 guide how to address this issue.
The debate in the European Parliament is at an early stage, noting that, although there is agreement on the need for a European area of education and continued cooperation, the European institutions still need to take a unique approach.
In September 2020, the Commission published a Communication on the achievement of the European Education Area by 2025, with an ambitious strategy around six key dimensions (European Commission, 2020). In February 2021, in its resolution on a strategic framework for European cooperation in education and training for the European Education Area and beyond (2021-2030), the Council welcomed the Commission’s proposal (Council of the European Union, 2021). It has set several „strategic priorities” that bear some resemblance to the critical dimensions mentioned above, but with less emphasis oninclusion and the geopolitical dimension while emphasising lifelong learning and mobility. 

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7. Alina ȘORLEI

TOWARDS A EUROPEAN EDUCATION AREA. ACTORS IN THE EDUCATIONAL DECISION-MAKING IN THE EUROPEAN UNION

The Fourth European Education Summit held on the 9th of December 2021 has revealed poignant challenges and trends that lie ahead the European Education in the next years. In the context of the numerous challenges brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic and the rapid change of the socio-economic context around the world, the need to come up – in united efforts – with resilient policies on education in the EU has surged. The European Education Area is an initiative of the European Commission which will build upon the resilience and inclusiveness of the education and training in the EU. Nonetheless, collaborative efforts at all levels of governance have to be made. The main purpose of this article is to examine how participation of different actors in the field of Education can be made in a meaningful way, so as they shape and contribute to the achievement of the European Education Area through influencing/strengthening the decision-making process in the EU. The article is firstly mapping the challenges and trends pointed out in the Fourth European Education Summit and other institutional official sources. The following part of the article will focus on the European Education Area as a driver of change in the policies of the EU Education and Training Area. Through the use of quantitative and qualitative analysis, the next section will focus on ways of meaningful multi-level collaboration among different actors involved in the EU decision-making process on Education, in order to contribute efficiently to it. The last part will bring to the fore a case study on NGOs as  means of strengthening the EU decision-making process on Education. It turns out that in challenging times, it is important to work together in order to transform challenges into opportunities.

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8. Liudmila CUROȘ

COOPERATION IN THE FIELD OF EDUCATION: IMPACT ON THE EDUCATION SYSTEM IN THE REPUBLIC OF MOLDOVA

The author approaches cooperation in education, analyzing the opportunities and the challenges from various social fields. The achievements obtained so far and their combination with the opportunities offered by the EU places the Republic of Moldova closer to Europe not only geographically, but also socially. If our country tends towards a European future, elaborating and implementing a series of innovative and systemic reforms in all spheres of activity during the last years, then education has undergone the most transformations; some have had an essential contribution in changing the educational and structural system. , which would bring the economy, legislation, culture and education closer to Western standards.
Education at all levels is a sure channel to promote everything that includes the term European citizenship. European integration will be done by those who are today in the school benches or classrooms of colleges and universities in the country. We will discuss in this article the educational projects and programs implemented and supported in the Republic of Moldova by the European countries.
In the globalized world, there will remain significant cultural, linguistic, and economic differences between the states of the world, so uniformity in a particular European common is problematic. In conclusion, the author mentions that we will have a gradual uniformity that considers each country’s national specifics without harming the elements related to national sovereignty in its international context. Undoubtedly, today’s young people need to be confident that they will have the chance to exchange university experience in a country other than their home country, which can be ensured, for example, by extending the Erasmus + Program, which has a means of coordination and facilitating the exchange of experience. Exchange of good educational practices and adaptation of national to European  international education would put behind the differences and conflicts of the past to create its future.

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9. Malgorzata ZAJACZKOWSKI

THE EU’S DEVELOPMENT ASSISTANCE: BETWEEN SHARED VISION AND DIVERGENT INTERESTS

The EU is the world’s largest donor of development aid, responsible for providing about half of global development assistance. The unique and multifaceted position of the EU in development is that it is both a bilateral donor, providing aid directly to developing countries, and a multilateral organization coordinating the national aid policies of its member states. The EU development aid policy is a shared competence between the member states and the European Union institutions. Therefore, planning and implementation of EU external actions is the result of two processes: first, arrangements at the national – member states level – and second – joint decisions at the level of the Community institutions. Therefore the article seeks to show the dynamics of the relationship between the two dimensions of European development aid policy. The purpose is to explore the possibility of creating a true collective EU development assistance understood as coherent and harmonized EU actions towards third countries.
Main attention was paid to the process of shifting in EU development cooperation policy from the national level to EU institutions and the collective dimension. The complexity of the problem lies in the fact that the range of activities under discussion is very broad and they are carried out both by EU institutions acting on behalf of member countries and by member countries themselves. Each of these dimensions plays an essential role. The national level of member states dominates because of the predominant financial spending position and broad autonomy over the foreign policy area. On the other hand, the Community channel, headed by the European Commission (EC), plays an increasing role of coordinator of the aid provided under both dimensions. The position of the EU institutions is increasing due to growing pressure to make EU action more coherent and visible, and also because of changes in the financing of development cooperation, especially the establishment of a single source of funding, i.e. NDICI Instrument – Global Europe.
The article is based on a synthetic summary and interpretation of available data on latest trends in development assistance and a review of the subject literature. It allowed to demonstrate the relevance of the studied issue in the context of recent changes, especially caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. To this end, firstly, the rules, institutional and treaty framework of the EU development assistance were explained, secondly, the changes that occurred in EU development policy also as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic were indicated, and thirdly, the real contribution of EU institutions and member states in development cooperation was shown.

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10. Aurora-Elena GAVRIȘ

ASPECTS REGARDING THE SOCIAL PROTECTION OF CERTAIN CATEGORIES OF EMPLOYEES AND
BENEFICIARIES OF CERTAIN SOCIAL SERVICES BENEFICIARIES DURING THE PANDEMIC MARCH 2020-MARCH 2022, IN ROMANIA

The stage March 2020 – March 2022 was a difficult one: many aspects of social life were disturbed all over the World. Mapamond confronting the fear of the coronavirus disease or the drama of its failure. Romania was, also, affected by the COVID-19 scourge. In terms of social protection and assistance, prompt and effective measures have been taken to ensure the functioning of many residential social services; in particular, regardless of the staff health situation᾿, the operation continuity of the social centers and the beneficiaries᾿ assistance had to be ensured. In the paper I will exemplify some intervention ways for different situations that were generated by the coronavirus pandemic, respectively as it were supported by various levers and institutional or financial mechanism. Thus, it was considered to take measures for social protection of employees or certain professional categories in contextual prohibition, suspension or limitation of economic activities caused by the epidemiological situation generated by the spread of SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus. In the context of the strategies of the European states, in order to prevent the community spread of the infection, Romania also took urgent measures, exceptional in the economic and social field to prevent damage with longterm effects on employees and beneficiaries of social work system; the measures including also private life and family, not just the professional domain of life.

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11. Anca OLTEAN

THE REFLECTION OF PANDEMY OF COVID 19 IN ROMANIAN JOURNAL “ADEVĂRUL” AND THE FIGHT OF ROMANIANS FOR SURVIVAL

The pandemy of virus COVID-19 was on the agenda of the Romanian press and television chanells during 2020-2022 and it was a time when all the Romanian population, all Europe and also global world was threatened psychologically and from the point of view of their state of health by the emergence of this virus. We intend to reveal how Romanian population responded to this pandemic situation, a crisis also of the Romanian sanitary system and to see the reflection of these two pandemic years in the journal “Adevărul”, a national journal, with a very extended archive of online articles, on the topic of pandemy and not only. The reader can clearly see a fight of decision making factors to keep the society on the track and a fight to convince the population to go to vaccination and to end this problematic situation. The entire Romania was involved in this battle of survival, a fight which was an unexpected phenomenon on the contemporary political agenda. The spring of 2022 with the opinion of the governence and of medical ellites that the pandemy is over, brings new hopes for Romanian that their lives will be in a process of recovery to normality.

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