The Council of Europe officially announced, on Thursday 11 January, the list of candidates to succeed Croatian Marija Pejčinović Burić as Secretary General of the Strasbourg-based international organisation.
As Mrs Pejčinović Burić is not standing for a second term “on a personal decision”, there are three candidates: the former Estonian Minister of Culture, Indrek Saar, the current European Commissioner for Justice, Didier Reynders of Belgium, and the former President of the Swiss Federal Council, Alain Berset.
Indrek Saar had been a candidate since December 2023. The Belgian and Swiss governments presented their respective candidates by the deadline for receipt by the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers, set for 6pm on Wednesday 10 January. For Alain Berset, it was 15 minutes before the final bell.
While the profile of Indrek Saar, who is not international enough in the eyes of observers, has little chance of convincing, the profile of the other two candidates is likely to carry more weight. Regarding Mr Reynders (already an unsuccessful candidate in the election of Marija Pejčinović Burić in 2019 - see EUROPE 12223/33), his advantage is that he knows from the inside how the European Union works.
“There is no shortage of issues common to both organisations on which Didier Reynders was active”, pointed out legal expert Frédérique Berrod, professor of EU law at IEP Strasbourg and a specialist in EU/Council of Europe relations.
She mentioned the Union’s accession to the European Convention on Human Rights, on which Commissioner Reynders had come to brief the parliamentary assembly at the October 2023 session (see EUROPE 13270/31), and the entry into force in the EU of the Istanbul Convention on Combatting Violence against Women (see EUROPE 13262/20).
“This text has been ratified by the Union, but it will be necessary to define - in the follow-up process led by GREVIO’s independent experts - its own competence and that of its Member States. Not to mention the questions that will be raised by those countries in the EU27 that have not ratified the Convention, but are nonetheless bound by the Union’s ratification”, noted Ms Berrod.
“Among the issues on which both the Council of Europe and the European Union are deeply committed are artificial intelligence, the right to a healthy environment, the defence of the Rule of law and human rights, as well as the protection of journalists and of children against sexual violence, including on the internet”, noted Frédérique Berrod, also stressing budgetary issues.
“The EU, which is considering its financial perspectives, remains the main donor to the Council of Europe, whose ambitions were revitalised by the recent Reykjavik summit”, she stressed (see EUROPE 13184/2).
At this stage, Didier Reynders can now be considered a “formal candidate” for the post of Secretary General of the Council of Europe, the organisation confirmed to EUROPE.
He is therefore entering the campaign phase and is expected to take a leave of absence from his post if he complies with the Code of Conduct for Commissioners.
Like the other two candidates, the former Belgian minister will be heard in March by the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers, which will then forward its final list to the Parliamentary Assembly.
It will then proceed to the election scheduled for June 2024.
The new Secretary General’s five-year term of office will begin on 18 September 2024. (Original version in French by Véronique Leblanc)