“Digital regulation is a key issue for France and Europe. This appointment must be reconsidered by the Commission,” French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna responded on Twitter Thursday evening.
The EU executive announced earlier this week that Fiona Scott Morton, a professor of economics at Yale University, has been named the new chief economist at the Directorate General for Competition.
The service is responsible for ensuring the proper functioning of competition in the EU and in particular for investigating the abuse of a dominant position by digital companies, which has led to fines recorded in recent years.
Elected officials from all political backgrounds have singled out his former duties as head of economic analysis at the U.S. Justice Department’s antitrust division between May 2011 and December 2012 or as a consultant to major technology groups such as Amazon, Apple and Microsoft. .
The appointment comes as the EU must implement ambitious new legislation to regulate the sector and is fueling criticism of Commission President Ursula van der Leyen, who is seen as too Atlanticist.
In France, apart from Ms Colonna, two other members of the government were publicly surprised by the choice. “There are many talented economists in Europe,” noted Lawrence Boone, Secretary of State for Europe.
He said he had started a dialogue on the issue with the Commission, along with Minister for Digital Jean-Noel Parrott.
“unethical”
Mrs. Scott Morton is due to take office on September 1, but his employment contract has not yet been signed, a source in the European Commission told AFP.
“It is a shame to hire an American Gaffam lobbyist at a time when Europe has finally decided to limit their powers. This appointment is clumsy, at worst dangerous (…), the Commission should abandon it,” scolded the conservative MEP. Geoffrey Didier (Les Républiques).
Mrs. Describing Scott Morton’s recruitment as “a scandal”, environmentalist MEP Yannick Jadot called on Ms van der Leyen to “rescind this unethical appointment”.
Asked by AFP, a commission spokeswoman, Fiona Scott Morton, said her new role will be to advise Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager on economic issues.
She denied any risk of conflict of interest. Before appointing Ms Scott Morton, “the Commission carefully considered whether she had a personal interest that might compromise her independence” and that she “would not be involved in the files on which she worked”.
“Gift to America”
“As he advised large groups like Apple, Amazon and Microsoft”, he alleges that this would “lead to an absurd situation in which the competition authority’s chief economist would be excluded from important files”. German Green MEP Rasmus Andreasen.
The appointment also drew ire from the European Commission.
“Everyone is wondering about this big gift to America. Is it related to van der Leyen’s possible candidacy for NATO?” asks a senior official on condition of anonymity. “We are going over our heads. Many commissioners are angry and have let the president know,” he says.
This manager was struck by the obvious desire to make the recruitment as discreet as possible: “The process was not transparent. It was quickly checked on points not discussed during the meeting of the College of Commissioners, without even mentioning the US citizenship of Ms. Scott Morton”.
The Commission justified opening the post to applications from outside the EU by the “highly specific knowledge required”.
The European regulator says it has only received “a limited number of applications”. Ms Scott Morton was “the best choice of these candidates, based on her qualifications and her performance during the recruitment process”, the spokesperson explained.
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