Bargaining for the national interests of a small state in the EU Council: the case of Lithuania

Since joining the European Union (EU) in 2004, Lithuania has played an active role in EU decision-making processes, viewing EU membership as one of its most notable foreign policy achievements. This has given the small Baltic state the opportunity to defend its national interests on the international stage. While the EU has undoubtedly contributed to financing Lithuania's strategic projects, especially in energy policy, Eurosceptics describe the country as a 'loser of integration' in certain areas, such as agriculture, where farmers still receive lower subsidies than those in other EU countries. Critics also accuse government representatives of not doing enough to defend national interests within the EU. This paper aims to evaluate the short- and long-term strategies, coalition decisions, negotiation tactics, and voting patterns employed by Lithuania, a small EU member state, in representing its national interests within the Council of the EU. The objective is to determine the effectiveness of these strategies. This research forms part of the research project 'The formation and representation of Lithuania's national interests in the EU Council: strategic choices, negotiating challenges and effectiveness' (No. S-LISm-25-9), which is being conducted by a team of researchers at Vytautas Magnus University between 2025 and 2027, and is funded by the Research Council of Lithuania. This project takes a novel approach by combining liberal intergovernmental interaction models (Moravcsik, 1997), negotiation theory (Elgström & Jönsson, 2005; Tallberg, 2010) and models of the influence of small states and new EU members (Panke, 2012). The study will analyse how Lithuania formulates and defends its national interests in the EU Council, the constraints it faces and the factors that determine its bargaining power. The empirical part of the study will be based on qualitative and quantitative analysis: semi-structured interviews with Lithuanian national representatives in the EU and EU institution decision-makers, politicians, ministry officials, representatives of interests groups, analysis of documents and voting data, and analysis of selected case studies. Lithuania's coalition-building models, negotiating positions in selected areas such as foreign affairs, security, energy, and agriculture, and its ability to reconcile national and EU common interests will be assessed. The research period of this scientific project covers Lithuania's experience of representation and defense of national interests in the Council of the EU after 2013 ( after first Lithuania presidency of the council experience), aiming to cover at least two political cycles – the experience of representation of different governments (left-wing, right-wing) and to assess whether and/how governments of different ideologies influence the formation and representation of Lithuania's national interests in the Council of the EU.