About Conference

Dear colleagues,

More than fifteen years ago, a team from UACS came together with the spirit to unite researchers and academics regarding issues that surround European Integration. They started with an idea that a multidisciplinary approach and discussion could provide the most comprehensive and applicable contribution to this great topic. The Annual International Academic Conference on European Integration (or simply AICEI) started in 2006 as an annual international event denominated International Conference, organized by University American College Skopje on the topic of European Integration and soon became one of the most traditional and well-known conferences in the region and beyond. Traditionally it is held every third Thursday in May in Skopje, RN Macedonia. The first exception was made in 2020 when due to the COVID-19 pandemic the conference was held as a virtual conference. As the years passed the AICEI conference gained in popularity and today it is proud to have hosted more than 450 presenters, from more than 30 countries, three continents, with over 300 high-quality peer-reviewed contributions in the relevant field. The success of the conference has been a result of several factors, mainly:

• Aim at high quality contributions - AICEI has always conducted a rigorous selection of high-quality papers that are subjected to double-blind peer review. As a result of our endeavor for continuous contribution to knowledge and research, the international research journal AICEI Proceedings was born;
• Longevity — it is one of the oldest conferences in the region. Each year the conference themes cover topics that are significant for the relevant period and that hold potential to provide significant contributions;
• Superior leadership —They say that it takes a village to raise a child, but it also takes a great team to raise a conference to its fifteenth year. AICEI would not have been possible without the people who have built the strong organization to ensure the success of each conference and provide opportunities for its future: UACS provost Prof.Dr. Marjan Bojadjiev, Prof.Dr Ivan Dodovski, H. E. Prof.Dr. Stevo Pendarovski, Prof. Dr Zoran Sapuric, Prof. Dr. Robert Hudson, Prof. Dr. Jerremy Cripps, and the late Prof. Dr. Biro Gaspar and Prof. Dr. Zlat Milovanovic. Their contributions are particularly important, as they have taken on the challenge to grow the conference into what it is today and open doors of opportunities for everything that it will become;
• Enthusiasm – the heart and soul of AICEI are the people that join it each year and the team that welcomes them. Without such energy and collaboration, AICEI would not be possible.

There have been many challenges, achievements and milestones over the past fifteen years. This last year the COVID-19 pandemic has challenged, but never discouraged us as researchers and humanity. Although the world is physically distancing, we, as researchers, stand closer than ever in the pursuit of new knowledge and faith in the potential for solutions that science holds. Hence, we are proud to announce the Seventeenth Annual International Conference on European Integration – AICEI2022 as our first step on the path towards even more successful next fifteen years of AICEI.

Sincerely yours,
Asst. Prof. Ognen Vangelov
Chairperson of AICEI2022