President of the European Council Charles Michel is now doing everything in its power to block the Commission President Ursula von der Leyen selection for the extension period.
The relationship between the Belgian Michelin and the German von der Leyen has been inflamed for a long time, but now the bickering has taken a new turn. Politicon according to sources, Michel has suggested that von der Leyen should not be invited to the informal European Council meeting on Monday, June 17, where the heads of state will discuss the nominations for the EU leadership positions.
“The member states are increasingly irritated by Charles Michel’s role in the selection of the head of the Commission. It seems to be based on purely personal motives,” Politico’s EU diplomatic source says.
The cajoling of the Presidents of the Commission and the European Council culminated in 2021, when Michel and von der Leyen visited the President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s by. There were only two chairs in the meeting room, one of which was taken by Erdoğan and the other by Michel. In the protocol, von der Leyen, who was on par with Michel and Erdoğan, stood stunned and finally had to sit on the sofa on the side.
BBC: n von der Leyen accused the situation of being sexist and asked in his speech if the same thing would have happened to a man.
Michel’s career flowed down the drain
In the EU, Michelin is judged to have failed miserably in its mission. For example, the president of the European Council has not been able to restrain the Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbánin stalling in Ukraine support. Michel’s career went down the drain at the beginning of the year at the latest, when he first announced that he would run in the European elections and later retracted his speech.
Politico has reported on how the friction between Michelin and von der Leyen can be seen in the canceled lunches in Brussels and in the background comments strategically given to the media.
Although Michel is fast on his way out of the EU leadership, he still has power as the president of the European Council, which decides on major policies. For example, Michel can decide who will be invited to next week’s Head of State dinner on Monday, since it is an informal summit.
However, leaving out von der Leyen would be very exceptional, as the members of the European Council include, in addition to the heads of state or government of the EU countries, the president of the Commission and the president of the European Council.
The European Council itself elects its president by a qualified majority and it is usually given to former heads of state. Liberal Michel is the former Prime Minister of Belgium.
The hot nomination roulette is tempting
Some insiders in Brussels believe that Michel is hoping for the post of High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, which will be vacated by the Spanish Josep Borrellin leaving his post.
Name speculation about the new high representative is hot in Brussels, but Michel has not been mentioned much. At the moment, the hottest name is Estonia Kaja Kallawho has formed good relations with the French president Emmanuel Macronin. The high representative will be chosen by the Renew group of liberals who came third in the elections, where Macron has a very influential position.
In terms of his position, Michel has the perfect playing field to undermine the EPP’s top candidate von der Leyen, because the European Council makes a proposal for the president of the Commission to the European Parliament, where the candidate must get a majority behind him.
Chairman Michel has recently made his views public. He said Euronews in a joint interview given to several media, that the selection of the new commission chairman will not be easy. Michel did not mention the names, but hoped that the next head of the commission would be “more balanced”.