European Council President Charles Michel will step down from his top EU post in order to run for the European Parliament in the upcoming elections, in a move that could have significant ramifications for the direction of the bloc.
Charles Michel, who has served as one of the three presidents of the European Union, leading the European Council since 2019 after being forced out from his previous role as Belgian prime minister, told Flemish media on Saturday that he will be vacating his position in favour of running as a candidate for the liberal Belgian Reformist Movement (MR) party in the EU parliament elections in June.
While it is typically the case that an outgoing Council President would stay on until November when a new College of Commissioners are installed into power, Michel said that he intends to step down as soon as July to take his seat in the parliament if elected.
“If I am elected, I will take the oath. I will then exercise my duties as President of the European Council until I take the oath as a Member of the European Parliament in mid-July. The European Council can anticipate this at the end of June or early July and decide on a successor,” Michel told the Brussels-based De Standaard newspaper.
The decision by Michel to step aside earlier than normal will likely see neo-liberal national European leaders scramble to appoint a successor when they meet in the week following the parliamentary election. If they fail to come to an agreement on a successor, populist Viktor Orbán’s Hungary, which will take over the rotating presidency of the Council of the EU in July, will be empowered with chairing meetings until a replacement can be found, POLITICO reports.
For Orbán, who has long been at loggerheads with the globalist leadership in Brussels, to be given the reigns of broadly setting the agenda of the Council would likely be an outcome that power players in Belgium, France, Germany and elsewhere would seek to avoid, however, with the condensed timeframe of his departure it is unclear if national leaders will have enough time to conduct the typical horse-trading involved in appointing top position.
The departure of Michel may have wider geopolitical ramifications for the European Union, including on central issues such as the admission of Ukraine and the EU’s relationship with Communist China.
Michel’s counterparts, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and EU Parliament President Roberta Metsola have both been pushing hard for an accelerated time frame for admitting Ukraine into the bloc, with von der Leyen branding the ascension of the former Soviet state into the union as a “call of history”.
Michel has also expressed a desire for Ukraine to join the EU, however, he has been more muted in his public comments about the accelerated time frame advocated for by von der Leyen and Metsola, predicting instead that the Eastern European country would join the bloc by the end of the decade.
Should his post remain empty and leave Hungary in charge of setting the agenda at the Council level, the hopes of a quick process of admitting Ukraine may be stymied, with Prime Minister Orbán being the chief opponent of the prospect within the EU.
There may also be ramifications for the EU’s relationship with Communist China, given that Michel has been one of the top advocates in Brussels for repairing relations with Beijing, which were frayed after Beijing imposed sanctions on European politicians for speaking out against the genocide against Uyghur Muslims and other ethnic minorities in Xinjiang. Michel has also been a leading force in calling for a large-scale trade deal between the EU and China, arguing that such a deal would help advance the cause of the green agenda.
It is unclear if Michel will seek another top role in Brussels, however, he could potentially seek to represent Belgium as its commissioner in the EU or even throw his hat in the ring to replace Ursula von der Leyen as the President of the European Commission.
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