European Council President Charles Michel has confirmed that he’ll stand within the European Parliament elections.
If elected, the presidency would stay vacant, and below the present guidelines, the member state holding the rotating presidency — Hungary after the elections — would chair the conferences.
European Council President Charles Michel, left, speaks with Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán throughout a roundtable assembly at an EU summit in Brussels, Thursday, Dec. 15, 2022. (AP Picture/Olivier Matthys)
Charles Michel has confirmed to a number of Belgian newspapers that he’ll run within the European Parliament elections. That is the primary time that the incumbent president of the European Council has stood as a candidate in an EP election.
The place was solely created in 2009, when the Lisbon Treaty launched it to the European Union. The position of a everlasting president was launched exactly to make sure “continuity” within the EU’s ambitions.
The primary criticisms, nevertheless, are that it undermines range and equal illustration amongst member states — though it was created to make sure these very targets.
“That state of affairs — an unchecked Orbán ruling the Council roost for the six months instantly after the 2024 European election — is one a lot of the different 26 leaders of EU nations can be determined to keep away from, given escalating tensions between them and Orbán, for instance over the Union’s assist for Ukraine and Hungary’s rule-of-law infractions,” Politico writes.
The president of the European Council is elected by the European Council by a certified majority. The following president will probably be elected in June, throughout the subsequent institutional time period, along with different appointments to senior posts.
The principles of process of the European Council present that, if the time period of workplace of the president expires, she or he will probably be changed, if crucial within the absence of a successor, by the member of the European Council representing the member state holding the six-monthly Council presidency.
Nevertheless, on the finish of an data pack despatched to journalists by the Council, it was pressured that these guidelines may be amended by a easy majority.
So, if the concern of Viktor Orbán strikes a chord, the entire process may very well be modified.
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