After a week of controversy centered on her American nationality and the doubts expressed by Emmanuel Macron, economist Fiona Scott Morton has announced that she is giving up running for a key EU post for the regulation of tech giants.
“Fiona Scott Morton has informed me of her decision not to accept the post of Chief Competition Economist. I accept it with regret,” Commission Vice-President Margrethe Vestager, Principal support for this application.
The appointment of a former member of the Obama Administration, a former consultant for Amazon, Apple and Microsoft, has provoked a lively controversy in Brussels. French President Emmanuel Macron himself said on Tuesday “doubtful” about this recruitment.
“Given the political controversy caused by the selection of a non-European to occupy this post and the importance for the Directorate-General (of Competition) to have the full support of the European Union (…), I ‘felt the best thing was for me to step down,’ Fiona Scott Morton wrote in her letter to Ms Vestager.
Politicians have pinned his former functions as head of economic analysis at the antitrust division of the United States Department of Justice, between 2011 and 2012, or as a consultant for large tech groups.
They denounced possible conflicts of interest and the risk of interference by Washington in EU decisions.
The European Commission had on Friday addressed a plea of ??inadmissibility to the French government, which had officially demanded the cancellation of the recruitment of this professor of economics at the prestigious Yale University.
But the case threatened to deeply divide the college of 27 commissioners at the head of the European executive.
Five of them, the Spaniard Josep Borrell, the French Thierry Breton, the Portuguese Elisa Ferreira, the Italian Paolo Gentiloni and the Luxembourgish Nicolas Schmit wrote to President Ursula von der Leyen to demand a reassessment of this appointment, a explained Tuesday evening to AFP a senior European official.
The powerful Directorate-General for Competition is responsible for ensuring the proper functioning of competition in the European Union (EU) and in particular for investigating abuses of dominant position by digital giants, which have resulted in record fines these last years.
The appointment of Mrs. Scott Morton comes at a time when the EU must implement ambitious new legislation to regulate this sector.
“I salute the responsible decision of Fiona Scott-Morton (…). Europe’s digital sovereignty is an absolute requirement,” French Minister Delegate Jean-Noel Barrot told AFP, a few minutes later. the announcement.
“If we have no (European) researcher of this level to be recruited by the Commission, that means that we have a very big problem with all the European academic systems”, lamented Emmanuel Macron.
He also underlined the lack of “reciprocity” on the part of the United States and China to appoint Europeans who would be “at the heart of (their) decisions”.
Arguing for “strategic autonomy” for Europe, he felt that the appointment of Ms. Scott Morton was “not necessarily the most coherent decision in this regard”.
Hearing in the European Parliament on Tuesday evening, Ms. Vestager had tried, without convincing, to defend her choice which had also received the support of Ms. von der Leyen.
“The idea that she worked for all the Gafams and that because of that she cannot work in the technology sector is simply not true,” Ms. Vestager told MEPs, referring to collaborations as a “consultant” but “never as a lobbyist”.
The opening of the position to non-European candidates appeared on the vacancy notice published in March, she further explained, justifying this choice by the scarcity of available skills.
19/07/2023 09:22:45 – Bruxelles (AFP) – © 2023 AFP
