Romanian President Klaus Iohannis is seeking to become the next president of the European Council, according to people familiar with his plans, Bloomberg reports, UNN writes.
Details
The politician is reportedly running for the post, which is likely to be vacated early due to Charles Michel's unexpected announcement that he will run for a seat in the European Parliament.
Johannis, as noted, joins a small list of former EU leaders, including Mario Draghi of Italy and Xavier Bettel of Luxembourg, who have been named as possible candidates for the position, which is one of the highest in the European Union. The President of the European Council presides over meetings of the 27 EU leaders and represents the bloc on foreign policy issues.
However, former European Central Bank President Draghi, according to an official briefed on his views, is not interested in an EU job.
Bettel, the former prime minister of Luxembourg and current foreign minister, told RTL on Monday that he is not a candidate now and wants to stay in his home country.
Johannis' second term as president ends at the end of the year and he is not eligible to run again. He will face an uphill battle to win the post if European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is elected for a second term, as they are both members of the center-right European People's Party, the newspaper notes.
A representative of Johannis' office refused to comment on the president's plans.
Addendum
The European elections will be held from June 6 to 9.
If Michel is elected in June, he could step down from his current post in July before his term expires in November. If no agreement is reached on a replacement, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban could take over temporarily, as his country holds the EU presidency for six months.
The upcoming Hungarian presidency is a concern for EU leaders and could be a strong incentive to reach a compromise after the election, especially since Orban is blocking aid to Ukraine. He also asks whether Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine should be called a "war," and he was the only EU leader to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin after an international arrest warrant was issued against him for possible war crimes, the newspaper points out.