EU’s Michel to run in election, will leave post mid-July

EU Council President Charles Michel will run in the election for European Parliament in June and will leave his post mid-July if he gets elected, he said in an interview with Belgian newspaper De Standaard published on Saturday (6 January).

“I have decided to run in the European elections in 2024,” Michel said.

“If I get elected, I will take my seat. The European Council can anticipate and name a successor by end-June, early-July.”

Michel, 48, is a former Belgian prime minister and has served as chief of the EU Council, the group of government leaders of the 27 EU member states, since late 2019.

He will run as the top candidate for his Belgian center-right Movement Reformateur (MR) party, De Standaard said.

The European Parliament election is scheduled to be held on 6 to 9 June 2024.

The son of popular Belgian politician Louis Michel, Charles Michel became minister of development cooperation in 2007 at the age of 31, and in 2014 became the youngest Belgian Prime Minister since Jean-Baptiste Nothomb in 1841.

His MR party is part of the European liberal family, although in Belgium MR is considered as representing the centre-right.

This is the first time that a sitting Council President will leave the post before the end of his mandate. Michel’s predecessors are Poland’s Donald Tusk and another Belgian – Herman van Rompuy.

EU leaders are likely to decide who will take over from Michel at their regular summit of 27-28 June.

Andrew Duff, a former MEP specialized in constitutional affairs, called the announced departure of Charles Michel from his post “a big bad dereliction”. According to Duff, the Council President plays the central constitutional function in forming the new Commission in accord with the Parliament.

(Edited by Georgi Gotev)