Lucia Yar (born ''Mrázová''; born 1987,

Snina Snina (, ) is a town in Slovakia located at the confluence of the Cirocha river and the small river Pčolinka in the valley between the Bukovec Mountains foothills and the Vihorlat Mountains. It is the closest town with rail and bus connections ...

) is a Slovak political analyst, expert on the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

and international security, former journalist, and university lecturer. In the European Parliament elections of June 2024, she was elected as a

member of the European Parliament A member of the European Parliament (MEP) is a person who has been Election, elected to serve as a popular representative in the European Parliament. When the European Parliament (then known as the Common Assembly of the European Coal and S ...

as an independent expert for

Progressive Slovakia Progressive Slovakia (, PS) is a liberal and social-liberal political party in Slovakia established in 2017. The party is led by Michal Šimečka, a former Vice President of the European Parliament. It is a member of the Renew Europe group and ...

Early life

She was born in

and has Rusyn and

Goral The gorals are four species in the genus ''Naemorhedus''. They are small ungulates with a goat-like or antelope-like appearance. Until recently, this genus also contained the serow species (now in genus '' Capricornis''). Etymology The original ...

roots. She studied at the Snina Gymnasium, where she co-founded a school student council, which later became a city student council. In 2009, she obtained a

bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Medieval Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six years ...

from the Department of Journalism at the

Faculty of Arts A faculty is a division within a university or college comprising one subject area or a group of related subject areas, possibly also delimited by level (e.g. undergraduate). In North America, academic divisions are sometimes titled colleges, sc ...

Comenius University Comenius University Bratislava () is the largest university in Slovakia, with most of its faculties located in Bratislava. It was founded in 1919, shortly after the creation of Czechoslovakia. It is named after Jan Amos Comenius, a 17th-century ...

Bratislava Bratislava (German: ''Pressburg'', Hungarian: ''Pozsony'') is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the Slovakia, Slovak Republic and the fourth largest of all List of cities and towns on the river Danube, cities on the river Danube. ...

(FiF UK). She continued her master's studies in European studies at the Faculty of Social and Economic Sciences of

(FSEV UK), graduating in 2011 with honors and the rector's award. She completed study programs in international security and European integration at

Ghent University Ghent University (, abbreviated as UGent) is a Public university, public research university located in Ghent, in the East Flanders province of Belgium. Located in Flanders, Ghent University is the second largest Belgian university, consisting o ...

and the

University of Helsinki The University of Helsinki (, ; UH) is a public university in Helsinki, Finland. The university was founded in Turku in 1640 as the Royal Academy of Åbo under the Swedish Empire, and moved to Helsinki in 1828 under the sponsorship of Alexander ...

. In 2014, she defended her rigorous thesis on the activities of the European External Action Service at FSEV UK. After her studies, she worked at the

European Commission The European Commission (EC) is the primary Executive (government), executive arm of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with a number of European Commissioner, members of the Commission (directorial system, informall ...

's Directorate for Enterprise and Industry. Since 2013, while based in

Istanbul Istanbul is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, constituting the country's economic, cultural, and historical heart. With Demographics of Istanbul, a population over , it is home to 18% of the Demographics ...

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

, she started writing a popular blog, which won her third place in the Blogger of the Year awards in 2014. Under the supervision of Associate Professor Oľga Gyrfášová, she pursued a doctoral program in political science at FSEV UK from 2019 to 2021. Her research focused on women's representation in semi-authoritarian regimes, using Turkey as a case study. From 2015 to 2017, she served as an advisor to the State Secretary at the Ministry of Defense of the

Slovak Republic Slovakia, officially the Slovak Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the west, and the Czech Republic to the northwest. Slovakia's ...

. From 2016 to 2019, she collaborated and lectured externally for the European Security and Defence College. In 2017 and 2023, she was an external lecturer at FSEV UK. Since 2017, she served first as editor and later as editor-in-chief of Euractiv Slovakia, a portal on the

. Her work focused mainly on EU foreign and security policy, transatlantic security, the EU joint digital market, and later on equality and women's representation. As a political analyst, she collaborated on various national and international projects, supported by organizations like

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO ; , OTAN), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental Transnationalism, transnational military alliance of 32 Member states of NATO, member s ...

, the Ministry of Defense of the

, the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs of the Slovak Republic, the

European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the two legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it ...

, and the

. She also moderated and participated as an analyst in nearly a hundred expert panels focused on EU policies. As a commentator, she collaborated with

RTVS Radio and Television of Slovakia ( ), or RTVS, was a nationwide public broadcasting, state-funded organisation in Slovakia. The organisation was created in 2011 following a merger of Slovenská televízia (Slovak Television) with Slovenský ...

, TA3,

TV JOJ TV JOJ is a Slovak private TV channel owned by J&T Enterprises and launched in March 2002. The channel screens serial dramas and TV shows. The name JOJ is derived from a Slovak interjection, comparable to ''oh là là''. History It was launch ...

Denník N ''Denník N'' is a Slovakia, Slovak daily newspaper and a news website which was founded by the former members of the editorial board of ''Sme'' in 2014. History In 2014, the Namav, a subject subvented by the Penta Investments group, announce ...

, SME, and other media, especially in

Slovakia Slovakia, officially the Slovak Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the west, and the Czech Republic to the northwest. Slovakia's m ...

. In 2019, she was one of four nominees in the commentary category for Slovakia's most prestigious journalism award, the Journalism Award. The editorial team of EURACTIV Slovakia was nominated for the Journalism Award in the Global academy in 2021. In 2023, the Iniciatíva Inakosť nominated the editorial team for the Diversity Award in the Media category. She left the editorial team in February 2024. Before the 2023 Slovak parliamentary elections, she volunteered to lead the media part of the "Circle a Woman" campaign, which garnered broad societal support, including that of President Zuzana Čaputová. In March 2024,

invited her as an expert to join their candidate list for the European elections. She ran in sixth position. She is married.

Political career

During the

2023 Slovak parliamentary election Early parliamentary elections were held in the Slovakia, Slovak Republic on 30 September 2023 to elect members of the National Council (Slovakia), National Council. Regular elections were scheduled to be held in 2024. However, on 15 December 202 ...

campaign, Yar led a campaign ''Circle a woman'', advocating for increasing the female representation in the

National Council of Slovakia The National Council of the Slovak Republic (, abbreviated to ''NR SR'') is the national parliament of Slovakia. It is unicameral and consists of 150 members, who are elected by universal suffrage under proportional representation with seats dis ...

through preferential votes for female candidates. From 2017 until announcing her candidacy in the 2024

European Parliament elections Elections to the European Parliament take place every five years by Universal suffrage, universal adult suffrage; with more than 400 million people eligible to vote, they are the second largest democratic elections in the world after Electio ...

, she worked as a journalist in the Slovak version of Euractiv. In June 2024 she has been elected as a

for

Publications

* Yar, L. (2020).

Kurdish Kurdish may refer to: *Kurds or Kurdish people *Kurdish language ** Northern Kurdish (Kurmanji) **Central Kurdish (Sorani) **Southern Kurdish ** Laki Kurdish *Kurdish alphabets *Kurdistan, the land of the Kurdish people which includes: **Southern ...

Female Fighters in

Syria Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in West Asia located in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to Syria–Turkey border, the north, Iraq to Iraq–Syria border, t ...

during and after the Fight Against Isis:

Emancipation Emancipation generally means to free a person from a previous restraint or legal disability. More broadly, it is also used for efforts to procure Economic, social and cultural rights, economic and social rights, civil and political rights, po ...

as a Fundamental Motive for the Struggle in Northeast Syria. Defence & Strategy, 20(2):19-40. DOI: 10.3849/1802-7199.20.2020.02.019 – 040. Dec 18, 2020 * Yar, L. (2020).

in Crisis: Divergent Foreign Policy as a Cover-up for the Economic Crisis. In Kiner, A. et. at. (Ed.) International Relations 2020: Current Issues of World Economy and Politics. (pp. 744 – 752). Bratislava: Publishing Ekonóm. Dec 4, 2020 * Yar, L. (2016). Turkey in 2015: How Elections,

Kurds Kurds (), or the Kurdish people, are an Iranian peoples, Iranic ethnic group from West Asia. They are indigenous to Kurdistan, which is a geographic region spanning southeastern Turkey, northwestern Iran, northern Iraq, and northeastern Syri ...

and Neighbouring Conflict Shaped Turkey’s Security. In Bátor, P. & Ondrejcsák, R. (Ed.) Panorama of global security environment 2015 – 2016 (pp. 273 – 275). Bratislava: Stratpol.

Early life

Political career

Publications

References

External links