EU’s Vestager defends appointment of American economist to top job

EU Commissioner Margrethe Vestager backed on Tuesday (18 July) American Fiona Scott Morton as the most qualified candidate to be the chief economist of the Directorate-General for Competition, after her appointment stirred controversy and drew criticism, especially from France.

Following Scott Morton’s appointment last week, several politicians, as well as the French government, expressed their astonishment and called on the Commission to reconsider, pointing out that Scott Morton is a non-EU citizen and was formerly a consultant for GAFAM (Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple, Microsoft).

The presidents of the Renew, S&D, EPP and Greens groups in the European Parliament sent a letter to Commissioner Vestager along the same lines.

During a hearing before the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs on Tuesday (18 July), Commissioner Vestager said that the role of a chief economist was “advisory” and that the post had “no decision-making powers”.

Regarding the non-European nationality of Scott Morton, Vestager argued that the post was “extremely specialised”, and that “not many people” are ready to accept a temporary post for three years, extendable by two years.

The decision was therefore taken “to open up the post to any nationality”. Thus, Scott Morton’s appointment was “a choice, in order to get the better person” and was decided “on the basis of merit alone”.

Of the 11 applications received for the post, “four met the eligibility criteria”, three of whom were Europeans, she explained.

As for criticism of possible conflicts of interest, Vestager stated that “there is no indication that there is a general conflict of interest” in the various areas of competence, even if Scott Morton’s previous clients included major tech companies.

Asked by MEPs about the risk that Scott Morton might be prevented from working on certain issues, Vestager said that “it is not because she has worked for GAFA that she will not be able to work on these issues”.

The Commissioner was asked several times to make the list public of Scott Morton’s clients, to which she replied that it remained “confidential”. Moreover, although a preliminary assessment has already been carried out, “the [detailed] assessment is ongoing” and it is therefore “difficult to add more”.

In any case, “if she can’t work [on certain files], someone will be able to replace her”, Vestager stressed.

“We are only talking about a handful of cases”, she added, and not about the fact that she cannot work on any digital subject.

Vestager also praised Scot Morton’ss qualifications, particularly in industrial economics, which were little questioned by MEPs. Scott Morton, who “has never been a lobbyist”, “knows our system perfectly” as well as “the American system”, argued the Commissioner, judging “that this set of qualifications is useful for us”.

In addition, the future chief economist “has always argued for the United States to take regulatory measures” in the tech sector, she said.

Work at DG COMP is not just about Big Tech, the Commissioner pointed out, citing also the agri-food, airlines, pharmaceuticals, and telecoms.

“She will be excellent in this job because she knows the industrial economy very well.”

Asked about the need for clearance for confidential documents, which is supposed to be issued by the EU country from which the recruited person comes, she said that it was “not essential to have it if it cannot be obtained” – although it was a criterion listed in the job description.

The Commissioner also pointed out that it was “common” for economists at this level to carry out consultancy activities in addition to their research work.

As a result, the Commission “has already had to deal with conflicts of interest in the past”, which, according to Vestager, had not raised any questions from MEPs. This led her to say that “all this is linked to the passport”.

The Commissioner, however, did not raise the possibility that the appointment might be reviewed as requested by the presidents of the European Parliament’s political groups or the French government.

[Edited by Zoran Radosavljevic]

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