It’s a very French story, but its tenacious drive has led the European Parliament to question Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager over the appointment of an American to a key role regulating tech giants such as is that of Chief Competition Economist. Vestager will have to answer questions today from parliamentarians who question the passport and past of Fionna Scott Morton to occupy such a position.
They first mention their nationality, expressing doubts about the opportunity for a citizen from outside the European Union to occupy this important position. Let us add that it will be a premiere, the first time that an American citizen holds a high position in the EU.
But, more in depth, they focus on the potential conflict of interest that it may entail. They question that an economist like Fiona Scott Morton, who has been a consultant to several of the big North American technology companies, such as Amazon, Apple and Microsoft, occupies a key position in the regulation of the technology giants. They see the danger of interference from Washington in the decisions of the European Union. This professor of Economics at Yale University, she was also responsible for economic analysis in the antitrust division of the American Ministry of Justice between May 2011 and December 2012.
They are deputies of various ideologies, but generally of the same nationality, who are most incisive about this appointment. “We expect clear answers to precise questions in relation to this unprecedented election,” the liberal Stéphanie Yon-Courtin, who is the one who has taken the initiative to request the audition to the commissioner, told AFP. “How is it possible that a candidate who has been a lobbyist for the big technology companies has not been excluded from such a high position in the direction that is going to regulate these companies?” asks the popular Geoffroy Didier.
Complaints also rained down from Paris. The French Minister of Foreign Affairs herself, Catherine Colonna, expressed last week her “astonishment at the appointment of the chief economist of the European Commission’s competition department… This appointment must be reconsidered by the Commission.”
But the European Commission is not willing to rectify . “The decision is made. We see no reason to reconsider it,” their spokesmen said on Friday. In addition, the community executive rules out any conflict of interest, arguing that the chief economist will not be involved in the issues that she has worked on or had knowledge of in her previous occupations.
On the other hand, Scott Morton received the support of some forty prestigious economists on Monday, including two Frenchmen, Philippe Aghion and Olivier Blanchard. “We Europeans are very lucky to have managed to attract someone of her level,” they say in a joint statement, also adding that this economist “worked tirelessly to convince American legislators to modernize the regulation of large technology companies.” .
