French President Emmanuel Macron said he was “skeptical” on Tuesday about the appointment of American Fiona Scott Morton to a key EU post for the regulation of tech giants and said he was waiting for answers from the European Commission. His statement made in Brussels, on the sidelines of a summit with the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean, comes just before a hearing of the vice-president of the European executive, Margrethe Vestager, in the European Parliament. The appointment of Ms Scott Morton as the new chief economist at the Directorate General for Competition has been deemed scandalous by MEPs who are demanding an explanation.
The European Commission on Friday addressed a plea of non-receipt to the French government, which requested the cancellation of the recruitment of this economics professor at the prestigious Yale University. “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”, replied Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday, questioned by journalists. 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”.
“A lot of respect” for the expert
Elected officials have pinpointed the former functions of Ms. Scott Morton 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 such as Amazon, Apple and Microsoft . They denounce possible conflicts of interest and the risk of interference by Washington in EU decisions. Mr. Macron stressed that he had “a lot of respect” for the American expert. But “she has been hired by a lot of companies and should step back from these situations, which makes what we hire her for quite ineffective,” he said.
“I think that Europeans need to develop European skills, to have strategic autonomy (…), we need to have autonomy of thought” and the recruitment of Ms Scott Morton “is not necessarily the decision more consistent in this regard,” he criticized.
“American Sheriff”
Ms Vestager’s hearing, scheduled for late Tuesday afternoon, will be open to all MEPs and should be broadcast live on the Parliament’s website. “This is a good opportunity to be able to defend this decision taken by the college of commissioners,” an official from the European executive told AFP, on condition of anonymity. 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. It fuels criticism against Ms. Vestager and Ms. Von der Leyen, considered very Atlanticist.
“We ended the digital Wild West to appoint an American sheriff? (…) This appointment goes against our sovereignty and our strategic autonomy,” said MEP Stéphanie Yon-Courtin (Renew, centrists and Liberals), on the initiative of hearing Mrs Vestager. However, the Commission relativizes the responsibilities that will be assumed by Ms. Scott Morton, ensuring that it is not a decision-making position but only an advisory function to Ms. Vestager. Fiona Scott Morton has so far not reacted to the controversy, despite some voices calling on her to abandon her candidacy.
She received Monday the support of forty renowned economists, including the French Philippe Aghion and Olivier Blanchard. “We Europeans are very lucky to have attracted someone of his caliber,” they said in a joint forum, judging that she had “worked tirelessly to convince American legislators to modernize the regulation of large technology companies”.