A Swiss At The Top Of The Council Of Europe?

(MENAFN- Swissinfo) The organisation dubbed“Europe's conscience” is set to choose a new Secretary General on June 25. Former Interior Minister Alain Berset wants to become the first Swiss to nab the post – who is he, and what's in store if he lands the job?

This content was published on June 24, 2024 - 09:00 6 minutes

Originally from Ireland, Domhnall worked in research and writing in a couple of European countries before joining swissinfo in 2017. He covers direct democracy and Politics and is usually in Bern.

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Berset: a dynamic politician no stranger to the limelight

Towards the end of his 12-year cabinet career, Alain Berset was one of the best-known faces in Switzerland. As minister in charge of health policy during the coronavirus pandemic, the 52-year-old Social Democrat from the French-speaking part of the country was omnipresent. Charismatic in crisis, he became a star – a sense for soundbites propelled him onto T-shirtsExternal link and into songsExternal link ; it also made him a favourite target of Covid protestors.

Whether his legacy will centre on this Covid role remains to be seen. Berset's overall record as interior minister is more mixed – particularly when it comes to efforts to reform the health and pension systems. His last years in office were also marked by scandals: while a blackmail affair and a penchant for amateur aviation pleased the media, recurring leaks during the pandemic sparked a parliamentary inquiry – it had no concrete implications for Berset, but did leave him with a“black eye”, according to Swiss public radio, SRF.

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After leaving government at the end of 2023, the fast-moving Fribourg man waited a total of ten days before announcing his next goal: to become Secretary General of the Council of Europe. The Strasbourg-based body – not to be confused with the European Union (EU), of which Switzerland is not a member – is a 46-state international organisation, founded in 1949 to promote and safeguard democracy, the rule of law and human rights.“Europe's conscience”, former German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer once called it.

As for the role of Secretary General, the Council of Europe is vague: he or she“has overall responsibility for the strategic management of the organisation,” it writesExternal link . At a minimum, this means the daily running of the secretariat and liaising between the Committee of MinistersExternal link and the Parliamentary AssemblyExternal link . Yet the role can become more political, says Anca Ailincai, a public law professor at the University of Grenoble-Alpes and a member of the Institut Universitaire de France.“Depending on personality – i.e. more or less forceful – the Secretary General can drive the agenda,” she says. The role comes without decision-making power, but it does have a“power to propose” initiatives.

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Ailincai says outgoing Secretary General, Marija Pejcinovic Buric from Croatia, tended towards the proactive end of the scale – one example was her responseExternal link to a Polish court ruling undermining the European Convention on Human Rights. However, Buric's time in office was also hampered by Covid-19 and the war in Ukraine. Of other former office-holders, Ailincai picks out Catherine Lalumière (1989-1994): not only was she the first woman in the job, she also served at a“watershed” moment when the Council began to integrate Eastern European countries after the Cold War.

Overall, of the 14 Secretary Generals since 1949, France and Austria have provided the most (three each). Switzerland, a member state since 1963, has never had anyone in the role.

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If Berset manages to change this and get the post, he will have his work cut out. The Council of Europe is at a difficult moment. The Russian attack on Ukraine involved one member state invading the territory of another – a tricky situation for a rights-based organisation. Meanwhile the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), created by the Council in 1959, sometimes struggles to enforce verdicts – even in countries like Switzerland, where a recent ruling on Bern's climate policy was rebuffed by the Swiss parliament.

Ailincai sees the outlook as nuanced. As for the ECHR – which she reckons gets too much attention compared to the rest of the Council – most rulings are applied, she says, despite resistance to certain judgements in recent years. And on the geopolitical front, the Council's reaction to the war in Ukraine was“fast and decisive”: Russia was excluded as a member, and at a rare summit in Reykjavik last year, members decided on an equally rare budget boost, as well as on a new register of war damages in Ukraine.

However, Ailincai says, the summit ended without the type of“momentous decisions” seen after some previous gatherings. Ultimately, faced with an erosion of democratic values, the Council of Europe is at a“pivotal moment” in its history, she says.

The Council of Europe and Swiss flags: Bern has been a member of the organisation since 1963. Keystone Three-horse race – with Berset as frontrunner?

When it comes to Berset's chances, we can only speculate. The Secretary General is elected by the Council's Parliamentary Assembly, a diverse group of 306 national deputies from the 46 member states. Swiss media is however confident: Le Temps has referred to Berset as the“favourite”, while the Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ) has talked up his“good chances” and“vast network” – which he has reportedly used enthusiastically in recent months, criss-crossing the continent to drum up support.

The Swiss also has some advantages over his rivals. He has an arguably higher profile than Estonian ex-Culture Minister Indrek Saar, and is younger than 65-year-old Didier Reynders (who also ran for the job in 2019, before becoming Belgium's EU Justice Commissioner). Berset also served twice as rotating president in Bern; under Switzerland's federal system, this is not exactly the sameExternal link as being“head of state”, but it does imply executive experience at the highest level – no surprise that his stints as“President of the Swiss Confederation” are at the top of his Strasbourg CVExternal link .

Yet even if he heads into the vote at the top of the three-name shortlist, Berset's election is not a shoo-in. Political considerations could still trip him up. One prospect is that centrist or left-leaning deputies in Strasbourg are split between the two Social Democrats Berset and Saar, leaving the door open for liberal Reynders. A second issue raised recently by the NZZ am Sonntag involve the upcoming elections in France and the UK: if distracted deputies from those countries neglect to travel to Strasbourg this week (attendance is not compulsory), it could cost Berset valuable votes.

Edited by Mark Livingston/sb

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