In June 2025, Dubrovnik for the first time hosted the international scientific conference EU and Comparative Law Issues and Challenges – ECLIC 2025, whose ninth edition gathered legal and economic experts from across Europe. The main organizer of the conference was the Faculty of Law at Josip Juraj Strossmayer University in Osijek, and this year’s central theme was “Strong and Secure Europe: Legal and Economic Aspects”—a highly relevant topic in the context of the increasingly complex challenges the European Union is facing today.
The conference took place on the 12th and 13th of June 2025 at Akademis Academia and was organized in cooperation with the Representation of the European Commission in the Republic of Croatia, the Hanns Seidel Foundation, and under the patronage of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts (HAZU).
Interdisciplinary Discussion on the Future of the European Union
Over the course of two dynamic days, more than 50 participants from 11 different countries took part in a rich program that included a series of panel discussions, thematic sessions, and keynote lectures. The aim of the conference was to open a dialogue on ways to strengthen the security, legal, and economic structures within the European Union, with special emphasis on comparative approaches and interdisciplinary cooperation.
The program was designed to enable the exchange of knowledge and experiences among academics, researchers, legal professionals, and institutional representatives—all of whom contributed to understanding the complexities of the European legal framework and the challenges of integrating new member states.
Notable Speakers and Key Topics
The keynote addresses of two distinguished experts stood out in particular:
- Prof. Dr. Zlata Đurđević from the Faculty of Law, University of Zagreb, spoke on one of today’s most pressing topics—the conflict of jurisdiction between European and national prosecutors in prosecuting political elites—through her lecture titled “Sovereignty or Impunity: The Conflict of Jurisdiction Between the European and National Prosecutors for the Prosecution of Elites.”
- Assoc. Prof. Dr. Viktorija Trajkov, Assistant Minister for European Integration of North Macedonia, shared her country’s experience on the path to EU membership in her talk “Macedonia on the Way to EU Membership – Challenges and Perspectives.”
As part of the professional program, discussions were also held on issues of energy security, digital transition, judicial reform, and migration policy—all with the aim of defining recommendations for strengthening the resilience and efficiency of European legal and economic systems.
Dubrovnik as an Inspiring Stage for International Dialogue
The conclusions of the conference point to the necessity of stronger integration within the EU, with greater emphasis on the rule of law, transparency, and security cooperation. A particular value of the ECLIC conference lies in its international and interdisciplinary dimension, which enables the comparison of legislation and practices among member states and candidate countries.
Alongside the formal program, participants were also offered a rich social program, including tastings of local specialties and informal networking in a relaxed atmosphere by the Adriatic Sea. This further emphasized Dubrovnik’s role not only as a destination of exceptional cultural heritage but also as an attractive and functional congress destination.
