The baby-faced beast of Berlaymont

Arch-federalist Martin Selmayr, who engineered Jean-Claude Juncker’s ascent to the European Commission presidency, is emerging as a pivotal power broker in European politics. Jane Lewis reports.

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Martin Selmayr: notorious and loving it
(Image credit: This content is subject to copyright.)

As chief of staff to President Jean-Claude Juncker, Martin Selmayr "has spent the last two years astonishing and infuriating the EU establishment", says Politico. Selmayr is "a fanatical believer" in the European Union, "who can quote by heart from the treaties of Maastricht, Amsterdam and Lisbon" and is seen by some as"a masterly manager". But critics say the baby-faced German lawyer is "a manipulative bully who prefers diktats to debate". His latest manoeuvre certainly fits the bill.

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Jane writes profiles for MoneyWeek and is city editor of The Week. A former British Society of Magazine Editors editor of the year, she cut her teeth in journalism editing The Daily Telegraph’s Letters page and writing gossip for the London Evening Standard – while contributing to a kaleidoscopic range of business magazines including Personnel Today, Edge, Microscope, Computing, PC Business World, and Business & Finance.

She has edited corporate publications for accountants BDO, business psychologists YSC Consulting, and the law firm Stephenson Harwood – also enjoying a stint as a researcher for the due diligence department of a global risk advisory firm.

Her sole book to date, Stay or Go? (2016), rehearsed the arguments on both sides of the EU referendum.

She lives in north London, has a degree in modern history from Trinity College, Oxford, and is currently learning to play the drums.