BRUSSELS BEHIND THE SCENES
Weekly analysis with Sam Morgan
A new EU top job appointment has provoked controversy in Brussels after the Commission hired an American to help oversee Big Tech and launch probes into uncompetitive behaviour. It is a lot of fuss over nothing.
When the EU’s executive branch announced last week that Fiona Scott Morton would become the competition department’s new chief economist, there was immediate outcry about her suitability for the job.
Criticism ranged from her past dealings lobbying on behalf of Big Tech – the very companies that she will now be charged with helping to keep in line – to the simple fact that she is not European.
Quite frankly, the EU cannot afford to be this picky or sanctimonious when it comes to getting smart people to join ‘#TeamEurope’.
BRUSSELS BEHIND THE SCENES includes weekly analysis not found anywhere else, as Sam Morgan helps you make sense of what is happening in Brussels. If you want to receive Brussels Behind the Scenes straight to your inbox every week, subscribe to the newsletter here.
Fiona Scott Morton is a relatively unknown figure who will start her new position on 1 September, advising the EU’s competition directorate on whether to launch probes, to investigate uncompetitive practices and how to implement new laws.
She was given the job after a thorough assessment process that included an interview with the current competition Commissioner, Margrethe Vestager. The Commission says that other candidates were also vetted.
If you believed some commentators, you would think that Brussels has let the fox into the hen house or given the wolf the keys to the little piggies’ front door. The blowback has been quite something to witness.
MEPs have signed a joint statement urging Vestager to reverse the decision, while French ministers have also ranted and raved about the appointment. The Commission has rebuffed those calls and stood by its appointment.
Quite rightly, too. The EU’s obsession with 'strategic autonomy' and keeping everything in house is starting to verge on mania, one which yields few tangible benefits, Behind the Scenes would humbly suggest.
There have two main criticisms: firstly, that Scott Morton has too many vested interests after being on the side of Big Tech, despite her claim that those side-gigs were important for her other endeavours in research and teaching.
Secondly, the most ludicrous point, that she should not hold the position because she is not an EU citizen. Best to dismiss this one first off the bat.
Does being an EU citizen mean candidates are better suited to a job? Europe may have the best food but there is a wider world full of intelligent and smart people to choose from, in this case the Commission has chosen one from the United States.
The implication that citizenship is synonymous with some sort of loyalty or fealty to the country of naturalisation or birth is absolutely ridiculous in the year 2023. Passports are just bureaucratic aids, not a token of allegiance.
Mark Carney, a Canadian, was governor of the Bank of England for seven years because he was the best person for the job. He promised to get UK citizenship before he took on the position, which he duly did.
But what did that change about his capacity to do his duties? If Scott Morton had an Irish grandparent and could get an EU passport that way, would it satisfy any of the people criticising this appointment based on outdated concepts of nationhood?
Behind the Scenes doubts it very much.
The entire argument stinks of anti-US sentiment and is just another strand of the ‘Fortress Europe’ mentality that is polluting the airwaves. Marine Le Pen, for example, denounced Scott Morton’s appointment, so make of that what you will.
Some have argued that the US government would never make such an appointment, reserving its top jobs for citizens. That is their loss and not something to their credit or to be replicated.
Maybe Ursula von der Leyen could have a quick word with one of the EU countries that still offer ‘golden passports’ to people who invest enough in the country.
Perhaps there is some merit in the argument that the Commission should not have chosen someone with any ties whatsoever to Big Tech for this job. But this is doing a disservice to a number of people and institutions.
First of all, is the Commission so stupid and naive as to have given Scott Morton this role without considering her past activities? Is Vestager, who has built a global profile on reining in US companies, that blinkered?
Behind the Scenes was told by one diplomat that this is like “Selmayr all over again”, referring to Jean-Claude Juncker’s former right hand man, who was parachuted into a plumb for-life job without due process. That decision was overturned in the end.
But this is apples and oranges. That was an opaque appointment that clearly smelled of nepotism, while the Scott Morton case is anything but.
As we move into yet another new chapter of trying to curtail Big Tech’s impact on our daily lives, can it not be argued that appointing someone that has 'defected' from the other side is a good move?
Top companies poach each other’s talents on a regular basis. Be it tech giants, carmakers or football teams, game knows game. The Commission looks more and more like it is run like a firm, so why not recruit like one?
History is full of examples of weaponising knowledge about the enemy’s plans of attack and defence. Perhaps this will pan out exactly the same way, albeit in the courtroom rather than the battlefield.
The Commission has an unfortunate history of its top people departing the EU executive and landing cushy jobs at 'Big Something', be it consultancy work, sitting on boards or outright lobbying.
Despite attempts by the Ombudsman and NGOs to put better checks on the ‘revolving door’ policy, it is still there. So why not turn it on its head and recruit the other side’s best people?
We live in a big, bad world. If you want to achieve something, you need the best on your side. If they have a bit of baggage, so what? Humans always carry some around with them.
BRUSSELS BEHIND THE SCENES includes weekly analysis not found anywhere else, as Sam Morgan helps you make sense of what is happening in Brussels. If you want to receive Brussels Behind the Scenes straight to your inbox every week, subscribe to the newsletter here.
