European Council President Charles Michel’s shock announcement over the weekend that he would step down by July is more likely to power the pro-European forces’ to pace up negotiations over the EU’s prime jobs following the elections in June.
Michel’s sudden transfer may speed up the method of discovering his successor.
In any other case, the mediator position between member states could revert – a minimum of quickly, between July and November – to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, whose nation holds the rotating EU Council presidency within the second half of the yr.
Beneath EU procedures, the chief of the nation chairing the EU presidency would assume the Council management till the highest job is formally stuffed, which is predicted solely in November.
“I don’t wish to anticipate the choice that can be taken by the European Council in June, […] however there are a number of choices and if the European Council needs to keep away from Viktor Orbán, that could be very simple”, Michel advised a number of worldwide media, together with Euractiv, in a Sunday name.
Shock announcement
Michel introduced on Saturday (6 January) that he can be operating because the lead candidate for his Belgian centre-right Reformist Motion (MR) social gathering, of which he’s a former chief, within the European Parliament elections between 6 and 9 June.
“I feel this can be very necessary to be accountable” and to help a “democratic imaginative and prescient” of the EU, he advised reporters, outlining his marketing campaign that may additionally goal to strengthen the bloc’s international place and powers on defence.
With democratic values beneath strain, and extremist events rising throughout the bloc, Michel mentioned he felt it was his duty as a liberal “to be energetic, to be dedicated, to defend”.
If elected, he must step down earlier than being sworn in as a member of the European Parliament on 16 July, whereas his common time period of workplace as European Council boss would usually run till 30 November.
Requested by reporters on Sunday whether or not he would harbour additional political ambitions, Michel didn’t specify if he is perhaps enthusiastic about one other EU prime job.
Likewise, he didn’t make clear if he was eager to be the lead candidate for the European Liberals, the bloc’s third-largest political camp.
Requested how EU member states had reacted to his plans, Michel mentioned he had “knowledgeable all EU leaders, and most reacted positively”. Public reactions have up to now been scarce.
Enter Orbán?
Hungary’s Prime Minister Orbán may very well be slated to imagine the position if no fast determination on a successor is discovered.
Certainly one of Michel’s predominant duties has been overseeing EU summits, which have turn out to be crucial find joint coherent responses to numerous crises, together with the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Not many EU leaders can be comfy seeing Orbán, a strongman who cultivates shut ties with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin and who’s broadly seen as having undermined democracy and the rule of legislation at residence, steering the bloc via these doubtlessly essential months.
Forcing EU leaders’ hand
After the European elections, EU leaders are scheduled to satisfy on 17 June and once more for an everyday summit on 27-28 June, and “at this second, it should be determined when my successor will take up the job,” Michel advised reporters, downplaying criticism of his plan to resign early.
This might usually final months, however EU leaders will now have a lot much less time.
Talking of a “explicit actuality”, given the EU’s geopolitical challenges, Michel steered that though it was “very troublesome to make this determination final time”, now “there’ll most likely be higher prior preparation”.
“Let me be very clear that in any case, in June, the choice is to be made on my successor and the primary session of the European Parliament will happen solely in mid-July, so it’s simple for the [European] Council to determine, to anticipate for my successor to enter into operate,” Michel advised reporters.
“There are numerous instruments if there’s the political will to keep away from Viktor Orbán (…) there are numerous choices which are doable to keep away from such a scenario,” Michel mentioned, including a change to existent guidelines may very well be “modified by a easy majority”.
EU leaders may theoretically even have the choice to determine to select somebody as a ‘caretaker president’ till a everlasting successor is chosen to fill the submit.
Prior to now, the European Council president place was usually part of horse-trading for EU prime jobs among the many predominant political teams after the election outcomes had been introduced.
After earlier EU elections in 2019, the biggest parliamentary group, the conservative European Folks’s Get together (EPP), was given the chance to nominate the European Fee president, leaving the position of the Council president open to a smaller group of EU member states.
Michel’s announcement ought to enhance strain on European Fee President Ursula von der Leyen, a member of the EPP, to formally put herself ahead for a second time period.
Nevertheless, based on the newest projections by Europe Elects from 30 December, the far-right Identification and Democracy (ID) group may change the European Liberals (Renew) as a 3rd power, doubtlessly enabling it to play a task within the prime job negotiations, doubtlessly ousting French President Emmanuel Macron’s liberals from key choices.
Controversial step
An EU official defined that “there are not any authorized or another impediments for the [European Council] President to run within the subsequent EP elections”.
Nevertheless, Michel’s announcement sparked sturdy criticism, even from his personal political household, with distinguished Dutch MEP Sophie in’t Veld of Renew Europe accusing him of ‘abandoning ship’.
“The captain leaving the ship in the midst of a storm. If that’s how little dedicated you might be to the destiny of the European Union, then how credible are you as a candidate?” in’t Veld requested.
[Edited by Zoran Radosavljevic]
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