Available in Eastern Journal of European Studies: ‘Between multilevel governance and urban foreign policy – Budapest and the Pact of Free Cities in Central and Eastern Europe’ by Ilona Pálné Kovács and Balázs Brucker.
This article examines the emergence of the Pact of Free Cities (PFC) as a form of politically engaged city diplomacy in Central and Eastern Europe. Drawing on the literature on multilevel governance, city diplomacy, and new municipalism, the study analyses how Budapest and other opposition-led capitals transformed domestic political conflict into transnational municipal cooperation after 2019. The paper argues that the PFC represents a distinctive form of paradiplomacy, through which cities seek to counterbalance the increasing domestic centralisation and political marginalisation by strengthening their international presence and European networks.
The full article is available here: https://ejes.uaic.ro/articles/EJES2026_1701_16_PAL.pdf
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