In a matter of mere days, the selection of U.S. antitrust expert Fiona Scott Morton as the EU’s top competition economist has snowballed into a major geopolitical faux-pas that saw France launch a rearguard action against the EU and challenged the stature of one of Brussels’ highest-profile figures, Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager.
On Wednesday, France won. After a week of campaigning, including a blistering public rebuke from President Emmanuel Macron, Scott Morton preemptively resigned.
The climbdown marks a victory for Paris — and a steely reminder of the formidable power France wields within the EU.
It also represents a potentially damaging setback for Vestager. Her ill-fated move to install Scott Morton comes as she is trying to win political support to become head of the European Investment Bank, the EU's lending arm. While France doesn’t have veto power over the job, its support is typically crucial.
Suzanne Lynch & Elisa Braun
I’m not entirely comfortable linking to Politico (more on that in a future post, but the use of ‘hit job’ in this article’s title might offer a hint), but in this case it’s indicative of the biased tone of this debate, which raged on for days on Twitter – one of the few moments when Twitter felt like its old, vibrant self.
The coverage in Politico has insisted on Morton’s nationality as the core issue for her rejection – as if that wouldn’t have been enough to disqualify her in the first place. It would be inconceivable – and outright against the law – to hire a foreign national in a top governmental role in the US; why would the EU behave any differently for sensitive positions? Having Union citizenship is a matter of loyalty and trust that public officials will contribute to the overall interests of Europeans. Oddly, the requirement that candidates be EU citizens had been in place before, but was waived by Vestager’s team ostensibly to ensure the best pool of candidates
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Nationality aside, a cursory look at her Wikipedia profile immediately reveals a range of potential conflicts of interest and doubts about Morton’s allegiances: while advising the US House Judiciary Committee in its 2019 probe of tech giants, she was performing (undisclosed) consulting work for Apple and Amazon. Appointing her in the leading competition role in the EU would be akin to putting a fox in charge of the henhouse – or assigning a former fossil fuel executive to oversee climate policies…
One could certainly argue that her previous experience with Big Tech makes her best suited to uncover their uncompetitive practices; but she could just as well know when to look away, or covertly inform her former clients of confidential EU investigations. One might also question why, if Fiona Scott Morton were such a great professional, she felt the need to seek employment outside of the US…
Let's summarize what @vestager said to the EU Parliament's Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs about Scott-Morton's nomination:
— Guillaume Champeau (@gchampeau) July 18, 2023
- She was lacking competent European candidates for the job, so she chose to remove the EU nationality requirement. But when Scott-Morton will have to recuse herself, competent European people will take over. (yes, read this twice)
- The list of conflict of interests is still being processed, but the decision to hire Scott-Morton is already made.
- The list of Scott-Morton's conflict of interests is confidential and won't be provided to the European parliament members
- Scott-Morton will work on the tech cases even though she worked for GAFAMs. "Very few cases" where she may have to recuse herself based on preliminary examination.
- Scott-Morton has not had benefited from any security clearance, nor needs to. Even though she will work on priviledged information and have information that will be of primary interest for her home country
- The removal of the EU nationality requirement is an exception and won't be the rule
This whole episode reflects poorly on Margrethe Vestager’s reputation, as she repeatedly defended the decision despite opposition from EU lawmakers and commissioners, and on the EU Commission as a whole, where Ursula von der Leyen has been sometimes regarded as too Pro-American. The answers offered by Vestager about Scott-Morton’s nomination in front of the EU Parliament’s Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs are unconvincing and baffling, as they reflect a lack of transparency about the selection process and a failure to account for the frankly inevitable conflicts of interests resulting from Morton’s prior engagements. I suspect that Vestager is keen to move on to a new position and no longer paying enough attention to her current responsibilities – otherwise I could think of more nefarious explanations as to why she was so eager to offer this position to an American citizen.
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