Charles Michel is a former President of the European Council and a former Prime Minister of Belgium. He served as President of the European Council from 2019 to 2024, completing the maximum term provided for in the treaties. He was first elected unanimously in 2019 and was re-elected in 2022 for a second term. Before taking up this European role, he served as Prime Minister of Belgium from 2014 to 2019, becoming, at the age of 38, the youngest Prime Minister in the country’s history.
Charles Michel began his political career in Belgium in his twenties, holding mandates at provincial level in Walloon Brabant and at municipal level in Wavre, where he served as mayor for twelve years. He later held ministerial responsibilities as regional minister for home affairs and federal minister for development cooperation. In 2011, he was elected leader of his political party. As Prime Minister, he led a government focused on social and economic reforms, investment, job creation, debt reduction and budgetary consolidation. His mandate was also marked by the terrorist attacks in Paris and Brussels, after which Belgium strengthened its security framework and reinvested substantially in defence. At European level, he was particularly active during the Brexit negotiations.
As President of the European Council, he chaired 46 meetings of the EU’s 27 leaders and represented the European Union in all G7 and G20 meetings. A strong advocate of European sovereignty, he led the European Council through a period of major challenges and crises, fostering unity and consensus among EU leaders. Under his leadership, the European Council endorsed the objective of making the European Union climate neutral by 2050. His mandate was defined by major events including the Covid crisis, the creation of NextGenerationEU, Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, support for Ukraine, and the European Union’s renewed focus on enlargement, including Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia and the Western Balkans.
He also worked to strengthen the EU’s international voice, supported reforms of the multilateral system, and was active in high-level mediation and conflict resolution. He has worked closely with heads of state and government, leaders of international organisations, and political and economic actors. Today, Charles Michel brings extensive experience in policy making, international negotiation, strategic leadership and conflict resolution. His areas of expertise include geopolitics, multilateral affairs, security and defence, climate and energy, artificial intelligence, trade, development and reform of the international financial architecture. Charles Michel has launched Charles Michel Office, an advisory agency in geopolitics and conflict resolution, and has joined Clay Arbitration, a boutique law firm specialised in international arbitration, as Senior Counsel. He is a Distinguished Professor at the China Europe International Business School and a Visiting Professor at the College of Europe, Tirana campus, in Albania.
