France’s President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday waded into the controversy over the European Commission’s hiring of an American competition expert to advise it on regulating big tech.
Macron expressed respect for Yale university professor Fiona Scott Morton’s academic record, but questioned whether no EU citizen was qualified for such a strategic post.
“I have many questions, and it leaves me doubtful,” Macron said, adding that he expected an explanation of the appointment from the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm.
Macron noted that the United States or China would not hire a foreign citizen to such a job, and argued that doing so was not “coherent” with his vision of European strategic economy.
The EU commissioner for competition law, Margrethe Vestager, was due to be grilled later Tuesday by MEPs over her reasons for hiring Fiona Scott Morton.
Along with professorships in Yale and Edinburgh and a post in former president Barack Obama’s administration, Scott Morton has worked as a consultant for Apple, Microsoft and Amazon.
The EU is overhauling the rules governing online business, and the US digital giants have launched a fierce lobbying campaign in Brussels to protect their business models.
French politicians began to raise doubts last week after the European Commission announced the appointment, with some alleging the American would have conflicts of interests.
But on Friday a commission spokeswoman rebuffed calls for the appointment to be reversed, saying: “The decision was made. We see no grounds to reconsider.”
