Council president Charles Michel to run for MEP, triggering search for successor

European Council President Charles Michel will run as a candidate for the European parliamentary election in June, triggering a scramble for the top job in the EU.

Michel, a former Belgian prime minister, heads the Council that groups all heads of EU member states.

A successor will have to be appointed by mid-July if Michel is elected, especially due to the fact that the Council’s rotating presidency will be taken over by Hungary, whose prime minister Viktor Orbán has clashed with the EU over denied funds for rule of law breaches.

Without an elected president, Orbán could have free rein over the Council for the six months directly after the 2024 European election. “I cannot anticipate the EUCO decision in June,” Michel told the Belgian press. “If they don’t want to risk that Orbán could be left in charge, it’s very easy; let them make the decision, so there will be no surprises, there are seven months for that. In addition, the rule that Orbán would take over as the temporary president of the EU Council can be changed by a simple majority before he arrives.

“The European Parliament many years ago did something similar to prevent Le Pen from being at the helm before an important meeting. Between now and June there is plenty of time to decide on my succession and the presidency of the Commission and the high representative.”

It’s the first time a sitting Council president will be a candidate in a European parliamentary election. Michel was expected to stay on in the job until the end of November, when the new College of Commissioners would be installed.

What the timing means is that European leaders must start negotiating for a successor who enjoys their backing earlier than expected.

The job is also part of the great carve-up on influential EU rules, that sees top parties agree to place their preferred nominees for the positions of presidents of the Parliament, Commission, Council, external representative, and others.

After the June parliamentary election, European leaders are scheduled to meet on June 17 and again on June 27-28 to seek a replacement for Michel.

Michel belongs to the group of European liberals, the bloc’s third-largest political camp. If he is also made a lead candidate for the Renew group in the June elections, he could also be touted as a prospective nominee for the European Commission presidency.

Michel was elected in the summer of 2019, while he was acting prime minister of Belgium, in a very long and complex summit that lasted four days for the election of the heads of the Council, the Commission (Ursula von der Leyen), Parliament (David Sassoli), the ECB (Christine Lagarde) and the High Representative for Foreign Policy (Josep Borrell).