Reynders faces Estonian, Swiss contenders for Council of Europe top job

The European Union’s Justice Commissioner Didier Reynders will face off against former Swiss President Alain Berset and Estonia’s former culture minister Indrek Saar in the election to lead the human rights organization Council of Europe.

The Council of Europe announced on Thursday it received the three candidacies for the job of secretary general, whom it will elect in June. Reynders, who is currently Belgium’s representative in the European Commission, on Wednesday gained the Belgian government’s support to campaign for the top job at the Strasbourg-based human rights organization.

The justice commissioner’s ambitions to run the influential human rights institution could force a reshuffle of jobs inside the EU executive and will play a role in how governments and European political parties divide up top political positions this year — a year in which the European Parliament election in June are triggering a whole series of changes at the top level of European international organizations.

Reynders had previously expressed interest in staying on for another Commission mandate but was forced to reconsider his options when Charles Michel, the president of the European Council, said last weekend that he would be running as the top candidate for his party in the European Parliament election in June. Michel and Reynders are both members of the French-speaking Reformist Movement party in Belgium.

Alain Berset, a member of Social Democrats, served as President of Switzerland in 2018 and again in 2023 and was health and interior minister during the COVID-19 pandemic. He announced he would step down as president in June 2023, adding at the time he had no concrete plans on what was next — except for doing yoga.

Indrek Saar is a former Estonian culture minister and former actor famous for his role in a long-running soap opera. He served as minister from 2015 to 2019 and as leader of the Social Democratic Party until 2022.

The Council of Europe is an international organization focused on human rights that is headquartered in Strasbourg, France and runs the influential European Court of Human Rights. The organization is not a part of the European Union’s institutions, which include the European Council and the Council of the EU.

The current secretary-general of the Council of Europe is Croatian politician Marija Pejčinović Burić, who started her five year mandate in 2019. Reynders was an official candidate for the job in 2019 but lost the race to the Croatian.

The Belgian European Commission member would have to take a leave of absence from his position as justice commissioner once his candidacy becomes official. The Commission declined to comment when that moment would arrive.

The election for the role of secretary-general of the Council of Europe is planned in June, a communications officer for the institution said.

Member governments had to put forward their candidates by the end of Wednesday and the institution will examine the candidacies end January. In March, candidates will face an interview by the committee of ministers and decide on the final list of candidates which will be transmitted to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.

The new secretary general will start on September 18.

Nicolas Camut contributed reporting.

This article was updated to include new developments.