On Wednesday July 19 in the morning, Margrethe Vestager announced ” with regret “ that Fiona Scott Morton was giving up the post of Chief Economist in the Directorate General (DG) for Competition. On Twitter, the vice-president of the Commission published the letter from the teacher at Yale, a specialist in industrial organization issues. This one evokes the “political controversy” which accompanied his appointment on July 11 and points “the full support of the European Union” (EU) which he would have missed to carry out his mission within the antitrust arm of the Community executive, responsible for investigating the anti-competitive behavior of companies, authorizing mergers and acquisitions, but also validating government aid. state of the various governments.
While European civil servants must be nationals of an EU Member State, Fiona Scott Morton benefited from an extremely rare exemption, hitherto never used for a position of this level. If her skills are not in question – several renowned economists, including the Nobel Prize winner Jean Tirole, have moreover praised her merits in recent days – the fact that she is American raises questions. Especially since the EU has just adopted a new digital regulation which primarily concerns the Gafam (Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft). The appointment of Fiona Scott Morton also aroused numerous criticisms related to the conflicts of interest that she raised, while she was a consultant for companies such as Microsoft, Apple, Amazon or Pfizer.
Tuesday was undoubtedly decisive in this case. Several European commissioners, including the French Thierry Breton, the Italian Paolo Gentiloni, the Spaniard Josep Borrell, the Luxembourger Nicolas Schmit or the Portuguese Elisa Ferreira, have indeed written to Ursula von der Leyen, the President of the Commission, for him ask to reconsider their decision. “Three or four others preferred not to sign, but they intended to raise the subject on Wednesday” during the last meeting of commissioners scheduled before the summer holidays, explains a European diplomat. Including, in particular, the Belgian Didier Reynders and the Austrian Johannes Hahn.
French reaction
Emmanuel Macron, who was in Brussels on Tuesday, on the occasion of a European Union-Latin America council, took the opportunity to convince some of his counterparts that action was needed. The President, who said to himself “doubtful” on the appointment of Fiona Scott Morton, was clearly heard, otherwise the protesting commissioners would never have taken the initiative to take up the pen to express their reluctance to Ursula von der Leyen.
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