Researcher Sara Silvestre successfully defended her PhD thesis entitled ‘Understanding the Negotiation Behaviour of Member States in the Council of the EU: The Case of the Asylum Procedures Directive’. It was a double PhD between the Institute for European Studies (now: Brussels School of Governance) (supervisor Prof. Florian Trauner) and ISCTE – The University Institute of Lisbon (supervisors Profs. Robert Ladrech and João Miguel de Carvalho). While the private defence took place at the VUB, the official one was organised in Lisbon on 29 March 2019. Headed by professor Ilke Adam in Brussels and Prof. Pedro Adão e Silva in Lisbon, the jury consisted of Natascha Zaun (LSE), Catherine Moury (Universidade Nova, Lisbon), and Helge Jorgens (ISCTE Lisbon). Awarding a ‘distinction’, the jury unanimously praised the quality of Sara’s work, which offers up-to-date insights into the negotiation strategies of member states in the field of EU asylum policy.
