It is a departure which raises thorny institutional questions within the European Union. The President of the European Council, the Belgian Charles Michel, has declared himself a candidate for the elections to the European Parliament next June and plans to leave his post in July.
“I have decided to run as a candidate for the European elections in June 2024,” he announced on Saturday evening to several Belgian media, including The evening And La Libre Belgique. “This therefore means that I exercise my function as President of the European Council until I am sworn in as a Member of the European Parliament, which will take place on July 16,” said Charles Michel, 48, whose mandate was due to end. end of November 2024.
A premature departure which provokes criticism
“After the European elections, at the end of June, beginning of July, it is planned that the European Council will meet and take decisions, in particular to designate my successor,” added the former Belgian Prime Minister, who will lead the list of the Reform Movement (MR , the French-speaking liberal party). “We can anticipate this entry into office,” said Charles Michel, whose premature departure is already attracting criticism.
European procedures provide, in the event of the end of a mandate linked to an “impediment”, that the President of the European Council is replaced until the election of a successor, by the European leader whose country holds the six-monthly presidency of the Council. of the EU (i.e. leads European meetings at ministerial level). However, in July, it is Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, familiar with anti-EU diatribes, who will be in this position. Charles Michel, however, considered that it was possible to “change (these provisions) by a simple majority”.
Dutch MEP Sophie in’t Veld, from Renew Europe (centrists and liberals), the political family of Charles Michel, criticized this departure. “The captain leaves the ship in the middle of a storm. If this is the lack of interest you have in the fate of the European Union, what is your credibility as a candidate? “, she wrote on X.
Elections from June 6 to 9 in 27 countries
Charles Michel was chosen in July 2019 to succeed the Pole Donald Tusk as President of the European Council, an institution bringing together the heads of state or government of member states, during the distribution of “top jobs”. In this capacity, he has been responsible for four years for leading the work of EU summits.
Elections to the European Parliament will take place from June 6 to 9, 2024 in the 27 EU countries. They will lead to a renewal at the head of European institutions, including the Commission and the European Council. The European deputies, who will number 720 at the end of the 2024 election, are elected by direct universal suffrage for a period of five years.