Economist Fiona Scott Morton announced that she was giving up running for a key EU post for the regulation of tech giants after a controversy over her American nationality, in a letter published on Wednesday by European Commissioner Margrethe Vestager.
Economist Fiona Scott Morton announced that she was giving up running for a key EU post for the regulation of tech giants after a controversy centered on her American nationality, in a letter published on Wednesday by European Commissioner Margrethe Vestager.
“I accept it with regret”
“Fiona Scott Morton has informed me of her decision not to accept the position of Chief Competition Economist. I accept it with regret,” Margrethe Vestager said on Twitter. The appointment of this 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 expressed his doubts about this recruitment on Tuesday.
“Given the political controversy caused by the selection of a non-European to occupy this position, and the importance for the Directorate-General (of Competition) to have the full support of the European Union (…) j ‘felt the best thing was for me to step aside,” Fiona Scott Morton wrote in her letter to Margrethe Vestager.
Possible conflicts of interest
Political leaders, mainly in France, have pinned down her 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 demanded the cancellation of the recruitment of this professor of economics at the prestigious Yale University.