The Sustainability of Country Groupings' Power within the European Council Based on the Case of the Visegrad States

The confluence of crisis that the EU is currently facing, particularly the migration and refugee crisis, has denoted that not all EU members favor Brussels’ policy decisions in how to tackle the crisis, such as the case of the Visegrad states. This situation has triggered the attention of experts to study the political weight of the V4 coalition within the EU, whose concern in strengthening its role in order to influence EU processes is now more noticeable. In that regard, the aim of this research is to study the key factors for power sustainability of country groupings’ in the context of the European Council based on the analysis of the Visegrad states. Hereof, the research reviews in first place, the theoretical aspects through the prism of Liberal Intergovernmentalism and its fundamental notions applicable to the subject matter. In the second place, it examines the nature and evolution of the EU-V4 relation and the main changing factors of the relation in the recent times; followed by the study of the main challenges for the V4 to rise as sustainable power within the EC. Finally, two case studies are presented: “Migration and Energy Security”, as a result of studying the main spheres of attention for the V4 in regards the EU policy agenda in which the coalition efforts to exert power through their joint positions.