French President Emmanuel Macron slammed the European Commission’s appointment of an American former adviser to Silicon Valley giants including Apple Inc., Microsoft Corp. and Amazon.com Inc. as its chief competition economist.
(Bloomberg) — French President Emmanuel Macron slammed the European Commission’s appointment of an American former adviser to Silicon Valley giants including Apple Inc., Microsoft Corp. and Amazon.com Inc. as its chief competition economist.
Macron said Yale professor Fiona Scott Morton “will have to stand back” from a number of key competition investigations due to her past roles with Big Tech.
Speaking on the sidelines of a meeting of EU leaders, he said he “would be open” to such a hire if Europeans were given similar jobs “at the heart of decision-making at the White House” or in China. He said it would be “extremely worrying” if it transpired that there was a deficit of European economists who would have been suitable for the post instead of the American.
Macron’s attack on the appointment follows criticism from ministers in his government as well as lawmakers in the European Parliament.
Margrethe Vestager, the EU’s competition commissioner, told the assembly’s economy committee on Tuesday that the commission wanted to appoint a chief economist “based on the merits and not on their passport.” Still, she said an assessment was underway to examine whether Scott Morton may have any conflicts of interest that could impact her work in the commission.
Earlier this week a contingent of European economists came out in support of Scott Morton’s appointment, praising the commission for attracting “one of the best economists in the world.” Scott Morton is due to take up the role on Sept. 1.
(Updates to fifth paragraph with Commissioner Vestager’s comments)
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