It’s been a few weeks since Fiona Scott Morton resigned from the European Commission, but the rancor is still there for the American. The one whose appointment as head of the Directorate General for Competition in Brussels on July 11 sparked outrage, she spoke on Sunday for the first time since her decision in newspaper columns Telegram.
The expert, who in the past worked for the Obama administration and for Gafa, as well as for Microsoft and Apple, thus shows that she did not digest this episode. She talks about the personal consequences that this resignation has had for her. “I had taken care of reorganizing my life, that of my family, my accommodation, my teaching, my university, my students, my research projects,” she laments.
The proximity of the American with certain technological giants such as Microsoft and Apple, for which it had carried out consulting assignments, had not gone unnoticed in Europe. As the Commission’s Competition Directorate General is often asked to investigate the actions of tech players, the hiring of Fiona Scott Morton was heavily criticized.
A challenge in the upper echelons of power
A petition supported by the main political forces of the European Parliament. In the chamber, the leaders of the EPP group (right), the German Manfred Weber, of the S&D (social democrats), the French Stéphane Séjourné and the Spanish Iratxe García Pérez, of Renew (centrists and liberals), and the Belgian Philippe Lamberts (Greens ) had written to the Commission asking it to “rescind this decision”. Even French President Emmanuel Macron was “skeptical” about this hiring choice.
Given the opposition that her arrival caused, even in the highest spheres of power, Fiona Scott Morton believes that she had no choice but to resign her duties.
“I didn’t want to find myself in a position where a substantial fraction of power in Europe wanted me to go. It’s not a nice job,” he added.
Source: BFM TV
