Elected by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe at the end of the day on Tuesday 25 June (see EUROPE 13439/22), the Swiss socialist Alain Berset will succeed the Croatian Marija Pejčinović Burić as Secretary General of the Council of Europe and will assume the post on 18 September.
Having reached the end of her five-year term, Ms Pejčinović Burić announced that she would not be standing for re-election on 10 January, the closing date for declaring candidacy.
This explains Alain Berset’s late announcement on the same day, explains Liliane Maury Pasquier, another Swiss socialist and former President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.
“Swiss diplomacy has a tradition of never putting up a candidate against an incumbent; if Ms Pejčinović Burić had declared herself, we would not have put up anyone”.
There were three candidates in the running: Alain Berset, who received 114 votes (out of 245) in a second round in which a simple majority was required, the Estonian socialist Indrek Saar, who received 85 votes, and the Belgian liberal Didier Reynders, outgoing European Commissioner for Justice, who received 46 votes.
In the first round, Alain Berset received 92 votes, Indrek Saar 78 and Didier Reynders 70, which did not give the Swiss the required qualified majority.
The failure is all the more bitter for Didier Reynders as it was his second attempt after a first in 2019, when he lost to Marija Pejčinović Burić.
“His links with the European Union may have worked against him”, admits Liliane Maury Pasquier. “There is a form of unspoken alternation rule at the Council of Europe between member and non-member countries. Parliamentarians more attentive to the specific nature of the Council of Europe have expressed this”.
A Belgian, and a European Commissioner to boot, Didier Reynders was perhaps too much the embodiment of the European Union that, as the Council of Europe’s main partner, is indispensable to its functioning, but feared for its reputation.
Originating from Switzerland, a non-EU member state, Alain Berset could offer reassurances and his candidacy seems to have been strengthened by the agreement to appoint the Estonian Prime Minister, Kaja Kallas, to the post of EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy.
With Estonia in this top job, the countries of central and eastern Europe were represented at the highest level, making the candidacy of former culture minister Indrek Saar less essential.
Liliane Maury Pasquier describes Alain Berset as having “climbed the political ladder with determination”, from a councillor for the French-speaking canton of Fribourg to Federal Councillor and President of the Swiss Confederation in 2018 and 2023.
“His experience means he can make an unpleasant phone call to a head of State”, says the former Parliamentary Assembly President, who also highlights the energy with which he managed the Covid-19 crisis as health minister.
He will certainly need energy throughout his five-year term at the helm of the Council of Europe, which has 46 member States and 2,200 employees.
In a world where democracy, the rule of law and human rights - the founding values of the Council of Europe - are increasingly under attack, “the road ahead is not linear, it is not easy, but it is essential”, declared the new Secretary General after his election.
Ukraine will remain his top priority, and he has announced his intention to set up a working group comprising members of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, the Committee of Ministers and the organisation’s Secretariat General.
He confirmed that he wanted to complete the Register of War Damage in Ukraine set up by his predecessor by creating a compensation mechanism and working to establish a tribunal for the crime of aggression.
“The hardest part comes now”, he said, calling for “commitment at the highest level from all Council of Europe member States”, as well as “wider support for Kyiv beyond the continent”.
Among his other priorities, he cited “youth, education and the fight against disinformation”.
He will also be responsible for being a powerful embodiment of the Council of Europe and strengthening its cohesion and influence in a world where, as Liliane Maury Pasquier points out, “the rise of nationalism and the weakening of multilateralism represent the greatest challenges”. (Original version in French by Véronique Leblanc)