Research note: Between multilevel governance and urban foreign policy - Budapest and the Pact of Free Cities in Central and Eastern Europe

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. Based on document analysis and elite interviews, the study highlights both the political significance and the structural fragility of the initiative. While the Pact has successfully articulated a normative agenda centred on democracy, human rights, climate policy, and local autonomy, its informal structure and dependence on individual political leaders limit its long-term institutional sustainability. The findings contribute to debates on the changing role of cities within European multilevel governance systems.