(2020) No 8, Issue 2 
The Spanish Presidency of the Council of the European Union in 2010. Between entrepreneurial leadership and transitional leadership
Maria-Valentina NISTE
Pages: 25-47
Abstract
This paper aims to look at the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union during the Spanish term of office in January-June 2010 starting from the research question: was the Spanish Rotating Presidency in 2010 a model of leadership for future rotating presidencies, or was it rather a transitional presidency? I have opted to analyse the political speech of Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, following his rhetoric in relation to the evolution of the Spanish leadership, in order to identify the model for the Spanish Presidency. For data interpretation, I have chosen to operationalise with the conceptual framework proposed by Oran Young- the typologies of political leadership, and of Ellen Golding’s for transitional leadership. The analysis follows three important moments- the beginning, the half-way and the end of the semester in order to highlight the particularities of the Spanish Presidency in relation to the research issue.
Keywords
Spanish Rotating Presidency, The Treaty of Lisbon, transition, political leadership, transitional leadership
References
Barbé Izuel E (2010) Introduccion: Entre la irrevelancia internacional y el aprendizaje institucional: un marco de análisis para La presidencia española de la Unión Europea. In: Barbé Izuel E (ed.) Entre la irrevelancia internacional y el aprendizaje institucional: La presidencia espańola de la Unión Europea. Barcelona, Spain: Institut Universitari d’Estudis Europeus, pp.15-22.
Batory A and Puetter U (2013) Consistency and diversity? The EU’s rotating trio Council Presidency after the Lisbon Treaty. Journal of European Public Policy 20(1): 95-112. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/13501763.2012.693418.
Berk R, Crowson R, Goldring E and Laird D (2003) Transition leadership in a shifting policy environment. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis 25(4): 473-488. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3102/01623737025004473.
Carreon JR and Svetanant C (2017) What Lies Underneath a Political Speech?: Critical Discourse Analysis of Thai PM’s Political Speeches Aired on the TV Programme Returning Happiness to the People. Open Linguistics 3(1): 638-655. DOI: 10.1515/opli-2017-0032.
Cianciara KA (2012) Rotating Council Presidency within the Post-Lisbon Institutional Dynamics: Politically Irrelevant?. Yearbook of Polish European Studies, 15: 27-42.
Heywood PM (2011) Spain’s EU Presidency: Ambitions beyond Capacity. Journal of Common Market Studies. 49: 77-89. DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-5965.2011.02175.x
Ilie C (2018) Pragmatics vs rhetoric: Political discourse at the pragmatics-rhetoric interface. In: Ilie C and Norrick NN (eds) Pragmatics and its Interfaces. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company, pp. 85-119.
López Garrido D (2010) Retos y desafíos de la Presidencia espańola del Consejo de la Unión Europea. In: Sorroza Blanco A (coord.) Presidencia española, Retos en una nueva Unión Europea. Madrid, Spain: Instituto de Estudios Europeos/Universidad CEU San Pablo, Fundación Alternativas, Fundación Real Instituto Elcano de Estudios Internacionales y Estratégicos, pp.19-28.
Rodriguez Zapatero JL (2009) [Online]. Intervención de Zapatero para exponer las prioridades de la Presidencia Española de la Unión Europea, December 16th, 2009, Spanish Parliament’s Plenary, Madrid. [Accessed 13 November 2020]. Available from: https://www.coslada.psoe.es/saladeprensa/docs/428475/page/intervencion-zapatero-para-exponer-las-prioridades-la-presidencia-espanola-la-union-europea.html .
Rodriguez Zapatero JL (2010) Discurso del Presidente del Gobierno, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, en el acto de relevo en la Presidencia Rotatoria de la Unión Europea. January 8th, 2010, Madrid, Spain. In: Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs Publications. Revista de Actividades, Annuario 2010. Madrid: Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, pp.20-21.
Rodriguez Zapatero JL (2010) Discurso del Presidente del Gobierno, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, ante el pleno del Parlamento Europeo para presentar las Prioridades de la Presidencia Española de la Unión Europea. January 20th, 2010, Strasbourg, France. In: Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs Publications. Revista de Actividades, Annuario 2010. Madrid:Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, pp. 31-34.
Rodriguez Zapatero JL (2010) Intervenciones Del Presidente Del Gobierno, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, en la Conferencia De Prensa Posterior a la Cumbre Social Tripartita de la Unión Europea . March 25th, 2010, Brussels, Belgium. In: Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs Publications. Revista de Actividades, Annuario 2010. Madrid: Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, pp. 84-85.
Rodriguez Zapatero JL (2010) Conferencia de prensa del Presidente del Consejo Europeo, Herman Van Rompuy, del Presidente de la Comisión Europea, José Manuel Durao Barroso, y del Presidente del Gobierno, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, después de la reunión Del Consejo. March 26th, 2010, Brussels, Belgium. In: Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs Publications. Revista de Actividades, Annuario 2010. Madrid.: Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, pp. 86-89.
Rodriguez Zapatero JL (2010) Conferencia de prensa del Presidente del Consejo Europeo, Herman Van Rompuy, del Presidente de la Comisión Europea, José Manuel Durao Barroso, y del Presidente del Gobierno, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, después de la reunión del Consejo Europeo. June 17th, 2010, Brussels, Belgium. In: Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs Publications. Revista de Actividades, Annuario 2010. Madrid: Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, pp. 154-158.
Rodriguez Zapatero JL (2010) Discurso del Presidente del Gobierno, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, en el pleno del Congreso de los Diputados, para informar sobre el Consejo Europeo de Bruselas y sobre el balance de la Presidencia Española de la Unión Europea. June 23rd, 2010, Madrid, Spain. In: Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs Publications. Revista de Actividades, Annuario 2010. Madrid: Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, pp. 162-166.
Rodriguez Zapatero JL (2010) Discurso del Presidente Del Gobierno, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, ante el pleno del Parlamento Europeo para hacer balance de la Presidencia Española de la Unión Europea. July 6th, 2010, Strasbourg, France. In: Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs Publications. Revista de Actividades, Annuario 2010. Madrid: Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, pp.178-180.
Schäffner C (1996) Editorial: Political Speeches and Discourse Analysis, Current Issues In Language and Society, 3(3):201-204.
Schreiber L and Hartranft M (2011) Introduction to public speaking. In: The Public Speaking Project Public Speaking: The Virtual Text. San Francisco: Creative Commons, pp. 1-12.
Sloane TO and Perelman C (2019) Rhetoric. In: Encyclopædia Britannica. Available at: https://www.britannica.com/topic/rhetoric (accessed 19 November 2020).
Young OR (1991) Political leadership and regime formation: on the development of institutions in international society. International organization, 45(3): 281-308. DOI: 10.1017/S0020818300033117
Zeman JV (1990) A farewell to informative and persuasive speeches: A rationale and a proposal. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Speech Communication Association, Chicago, IL. ERIC database (ED 325881).
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.