2024-01-27 10:30:00
” A puppet ! » This is the expression most used in Brussels diplomatic circles on Friday evening, when Charles Michel announced that, all things considered, he renounces running for the European elections in Belgium and will continue his mission as President of the Council until ends in November. In twenty days (his candidacy dates back to January 6), the Belgian was able to measure all the discredit with which he is burdened, half voices, within institutions. “He doesn’t do the job, he never understood what the presidency of the Council was,” squeaks a representative of the Twenty-Seven. He had a very good chief of staff, François Roux, who, if he had listened to him, would have prevented him from making many mistakes. Roux preferred to resign in June 2020. That says it all. »
Pitiful, this candidacy had in fact aroused a torrent of criticism as the individual seemed beneath his function and only interested in his political survival, desperately on the lookout for the “next job”, a good hideout. paid, due to not having been able to secure a high-level international position (within the UN for example). When, last week, Michel skipped the plenary session in Strasbourg due to “lumbago”, one could suspect that his body had not taken the media beating well. Even “great characters” somatize…
“I underestimated the extent of certain negative reactions”
“My choice sparked lively media controversy,” Michel wrote on Facebook in a detailed explanation published Friday at 6:50 p.m. “I had anticipated part of it, given the unprecedented – audacious, some would say – aspect of my approach. But I underestimated the scale and radicality of certain negative reactions – not within the European Council but outside it – to the prospect of seeing me take part in the European campaign. And also to bring forward by a few months the end of my mandate and the entry into office of the person who will succeed me. »
At the same time as he announced his candidacy at the beginning of January, he specified, in fact, the date of his early withdrawal: July 9, the day the elected European deputies take their oath. He had studied his little business legally; his lack at the head of the Council was, in this case, to be filled by the Hungarian Prime Minister, his country having to take over from Belgium as the rotating presidency of the EU from July 1. Michel also committed to carrying out a discreet electoral campaign which, he assured, was compatible with his duties.
“Tintin in the land of conflicts of interest”
In La Libre Belgique, the virulence of a column signed by Franklin Dehousse, professor at the University of Liège, former special representative of Belgium, former judge at the Court of Justice of the European Union, had circulated from embassy to embassy. The title – “Tintin in the Land of Conflicts of Interest” – set the tone. We have to get to the bottom of it.
What is a President of the Council? The response of the treaty (article 15) outlines the function of an honest broker without much power: preparing the work of the European Council, chairing the meetings of the European Council (at least four times a year, more in the event of crises), lead them, ensure their continuity in cooperation with the Commission on the basis of the work of the General Affairs Council. Between the twenty-seven leaders, he must be skillful enough to build consensus. Then, he reports to Parliament at the end of each Council meeting.
Confusion of roles
“Its essential role consists of ensuring “the continuity and preparation of the work,” explained Franklin Dehousse. This role becomes even more essential at the end of the legislature. The European Parliament was then dissolved and the Commission began to fall apart. The President of the European Council therefore remains the most stable body. For this, from 2010, it was decided to desynchronize this function from the others, and to maintain it until November 1 of the electoral year. Someone is indeed needed in the event of a major crisis during the transition (a financial accident, or a collapse of the Ukrainian front, for example). » From then on, Michel’s departure on July 9 was crassly casual…
Furthermore, the creation of a stable President of the Council was aimed, precisely, at avoiding the self-serving manipulations of rotating presidencies. Handing over the keys to Orban was, again, contempt for the spirit of the institution.
A harmful ego quarrel
In any case, the President of the Council has nothing to do with the Presidency of the Commission, which has an enormous administration at its disposal to propose texts, negotiate international agreements, enforce competition law. , directives and treaties by pursuing, before the CJEU, States which deviate from them. The European machine is, of course, in the hands of the Commission. To put it in a nutshell, the rivalry between Ursula von der Leyen and Charles Michel, which has ravaged their relations for more than four years, had no reason to exist. “Charles Michel’s vanity in wanting to exist on his own land was one of his many errors,” comments a Brussels diplomat.
READ ALSO “Sofagate”: the “disciplinary council” of Charles Michel and Ursula von der LeyenEveryone has in mind the “Sofagate” protocol incident in Ankara with this image of Charles Michel slumping full length into an armchair near President Erdogan in front of the sonic excitement of von der Leyen confined to a bench on the side… A diplomatic incident which will have ridiculed the EU and which is at the origin of an endless war of egos between the two European heads. “This quarrel says everything about Michel’s mistake. The European Council instructs the Commission. He sets the course. It does not have to compete on current affairs with the Commission,” explains a representative of the Member States.
Macron, the worst casting director
The Germans are the most critical of the “Michel style”. On the other hand, Emmanuel Macron, who pushed his candidacy – they are from the same political family, Renew – is cleaning up, and is lenient with his mistakes in the delicate budgetary negotiations. For example, during the very long sequence of the “European recovery plan” of July 2020. Emmanuel Macron and Angela Merkel proposed, two months earlier, a plan of 500 billion euros in subsidies to overcome the Covid crisis. 19. The “frugal” countries, then led by the Dutchman Mark Rutte and the Austrian Sebastian Kurz, do not want to hear about it. From the first evening of negotiations, Charles Michel put on the table a very significant reduction in subsidies. Merkel and Macron are stunned. They immediately dismiss Michel and take back the reins of the negotiation for the next four days… “Macron was the worst casting director of the institutions,” they grumble in Brussels.
Another question: what are the Council’s conclusions? They have no legal value. “But must we nevertheless make endless declamations about support for Ukraine, at each Council, with a number of empty oaths when no new decision is taken? asks a diplomat. Charles Michel on the spread of the pages. We have to prune during Coreper [conseil des ambassadeurs des Vingt-Sept, NDLR] which precede the Council. The final result remains pompous but we have to see where we are starting from… We are doing him a service by purifying the conclusions. At the time of Jacques Delors, the conclusions were very dry, very direct, very clinical. We have lost this rigor. Now we make sentences. »
A code of conduct to complete
Charles Michel was able to take advantage of a certain legal vacuum to announce his candidacy. The “code of conduct” of the President of the Council is not up to date. It must be completed. For example, nothing is planned for “revolving doors”, “revolving doors”. How can we imagine that European commissioners, and now MEPs, are subject to rules for the “next job” and that the President of the Council escapes them? The very profile of the President of the Council defines, in truth, a “wise man” (Michel is 48 years old), a politician at the end of his career like Herman Van Rompuy, who must put himself at the service of the European consensus and not an ambitious person who is too young. who thinks about what’s next.
This is why the choice of the Twenty-Seven in July 2019 was not happy. We can overwhelm Charles Michel, and have fun with his nicknames (“Monsieur Potato”, etc.), but we would remain at the scum of things. The original fault in the Council’s backstage arrangements resulted in a casting error, in ignorance of the spirit of the texts and the logic of the institutions. And among the Twenty-Seven, Emmanuel Macron bears the heaviest responsibility. Will we be able to learn lessons from this for the next selection of “top jobs” next summer?
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