Migration and asylum law of the V4 in the European Union context: between harmonisation and reluctance

Ever since the 2015 migration and asylum crisis, the legal regulation of this field in the European Union has been debated strongly in almost all its aspects. The member countries of the Visegrád Group (V4) have voiced dissent regarding a number of EU measures in this field, leading to political and legal confrontation. After a brief review of the public law context of EU migration and asylum policy and the general attitude of the V4 towards these regulatory fields, this paper elaborates how the EU and the V4 reacted – in legal terms – to the 2015 migration and asylum crisis and to each other’s measures, focusing on three key V4 policy goals. The paper also analyses the reception of the 2020 proposal on the New Pact on Migration and Asylum and discusses whether it can be seen as the way forward in terms of a more consensual policy approach. The paper finds that although the approach of the V4 has had a perceivable effect on that of the EU, elements of disagreement remain; it further argues that the harmonious elements of the approaches of the EU and the V4 could potentially be built upon to reach a compromise, but maintains that policy-based reluctance cannot have an effect on obligations laid down by EU law.