Negotiating the New Pact on Migration: Central European interest-advocacy in Council of the EU

How do Central Europeans influence policymaking in the European Union? What strategies do they adopt to achieve their preferred policy outcomes? How do these impact their policy coordination processes? This study aims to answer these questions by analysing the negotiations that led to adopting the New Pact on Migration and Asylum, a comprehensive legislative package that reforms the EU’s migration system. Drawing on previous work on Council of the EU negotiations and Central European foreign policy, the paper tests three hypotheses related to the interest-advocacy of Central European EU member states. Using a most-similar comparative case study design, it analyses the diplomatic activities of Austria, Czechia, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia, which have a history of strong cooperation on migration in the V4 and V4+ formats.