We utter in the beginning our approval with the Reflections sent by Leonce Bekemans. His opinions and proposals about the role and future of the Jean Monnet Program correspond entirely with ours.

Still, we would like to add a few things like:

• More visibility and impact: The national scientific groups should recognize the Jean Monnet Centers of Excellency as research  centers specialized in European matters.
• The Jean Monnet Centers of Excellency should have a strong connection with the other EU programs dealing with European issues like Europe Direct, Team Europe, different Research, and Information Centers, and so on.
• The Jean Monnet Centers of Excellency should offer the possibility of attending recognized post-graduate courses, dedicated for young professionals interested in the European matters.
• The national governments, regional authorities should co-finance the Jean Monnet Centers of Excellency, obtaining in return the possibility of delocalization or a better coordination of their activities.
• The Centers ought to be maintained for at least 5 years after the end of the EU’s financing, in order to obtain a status, a certain prestige, to consolidate as an integration structure.
• The Jean Monnet Program Forum should become a permanent one with the help of a site in real time dedicated to all the actions of Jean Monnet Centers of Excellency from EU countries.
• The Program should put together an on-line European library containing all the studies completed by the Jean Monnet Centers of Excellency throughout the years.
• The Jean Monnet Centers of Excellency must maintain the academic and research component. Inside the universities, they must offer open courses and debates on today’s European Union to all interested students.

  

Prof. Nicolae Păun,

Vice-dean of the Faculty of European Studies

Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca

Romania