From UMB to Oxford and Brussels
Dr. Martina Vass analyses the leaders of the European Council in a new book
Dr. Martina Vass, a graduate of the International Relations programme at the Faculty of Political Science and International Relations at the Matej Bel University in Banská Bystrica (2009) and a graduate of the MPhil in International Relations at the University of Oxford (St Cross College, 2010), has published a new book entitled "Leadership Styles in the European Council: How Leaders Behave Behind Closed Doors". In this publication, she examines the leadership styles of European Council leaders during three crises between 2010 and 2016 - the financial and debt crisis, the Ukraine crisis and the migration crisis.
Dr Vass analyses the behaviour of five long-standing members of the European Council: Werner Faymann, Dalia Grybauskaite, Angela Merkel, Viktor Orbán and Mark Rutte. On the basis of this analysis, he develops a theory of leadership styles influenced by domestic factors. It stresses that cooperative leadership styles are more appropriate for the European Council, while non-cooperative approaches can damage an environment based on negotiation and consensus.
The book, published by Palgrave, also examines the impact of the European Council environment on leaders' behaviour and identifies three effects: socialisation towards cooperation, compromise and Europeanisation.
Dr Vass is a former Weidenfeld Foundation Fellow at Oxford University and is currently an EU official. Prior to that, she worked as a journalist and in various private and public institutions in Slovakia.
In an interview with DPIR, Dr. Vass said the book grew out of her dissertation. In 2016, when she started thinking about the topic, there was a debate about the lack of leadership in the EU. In her view, the expectation of one strong leader to solve all problems is wrong because the EU's strength has always been in compromise.
Dr Vass hopes that her book will help readers to understand that there are no easy solutions and that the path to them is always complex, based on debate and compromise. She believes that the process leading to solutions has a healing effect and can foster trust, a sense of belonging and a belief in the power of cooperation.
Dr. Vass plans to follow up on the book's findings with a series of articles that will further develop her findings.