With 12 votes to 11, the new French candidate for the post of Internal Market Commissioner, Thierry Breton, has thus performed less well under examination of his declaration of interest in the Legal Affairs Committee (JURI) on Tuesday 12 November than the short-lived French candidate, Sylvie Goulard, who had obtained the support of 14 MEPs to 4 in this first stage.
The vote, by secret ballot, focused on the question of whether the JURI Committee should address additional written questions to the Frenchman. The GUE/NGL, the Greens/EFA, and the Social Democrats, as well as ID, were in favour, while the EPP, Renew Europe and ECR were against it.
“A past does not mean that there is a liability”, Geoffroy Didier (EPP, France) insisted in front of some journalists. “The facts were clear; we had never seen such a complete statement”, the MEP said, referring to Breton's statement, which, with its 10 pages (see EUROPE 12366/17), was indeed on average more than double that sent by the other two Hungarian and Romanian candidates. The MEP also recalled that Mr Breton had been exemplary as Minister of Economy under President Jacques Chirac, while he had previously been at the head of Thomson and France Télécom.
“I come out completely disgusted, because all this is unnamed hypocrisy”, said Manon Aubry (GUE/NGL, France), in front of a small group of journalists, as she emerged from the vote. “We had an extremely precise list of questions”, added the Frenchwoman, before denouncing the asymmetry in the treatment of certain political groups, particularly the EPP, which had shown itself to be much more attentive to Sylvie Goulard’s candidacy. “We had this whole debate in order to have a political vote in the end”.
The discussions reportedly focused in particular on how Mr Breton would recuse himself in the event of potential conflicts of interest during his term of office with respect to the management of certain files. In view of the intensity of the exchanges, Renew Europe reportedly proposed to invite Thierry Breton directly – as the French candidate was on the premises of the European Parliament at the same time – to the JURI committee to answer questions from the committee’s MEPs, which was ultimately refused.
Two auditions in sight? The hearing of the Frenchman before the Industry and Research Committee (ITRE) and the Internal Market and Consumer Protection Committee (IMCO), to be held on Thursday afternoon, 14 November, is likely to be difficult. In order to be approved, it is in fact necessary to obtain the support of two thirds of the deputies (i.e. 73 deputies in all out of 118). This is a challenge, even with the clear and frank support of the EPP. Some fear that there may be two hearings, knowing that the majority is lowered to a simple majority at the second hearing.
This latter majority would be achievable for Mr Breton, given that the EPP supports the candidacy of the Frenchman, a former member of this political family. The EPP President, Manfred Weber of Germany, told journalists at a conference that he hoped that the von der Leyen Commission would be in office by 1 December at the latest. On Mr Breton’s candidacy, the German seemed positive, judging his declaration of interests to be “very good, that’s why we voted in favour”.
Corporate Europe Observatory is sounding the alarm. A few days earlier, in a lengthy analysis, Corporate Europe Observatory, castigated Mr Breton's candidacy, stating that this was the first time a CEO had been chosen to join the College of Commissioners, “ a move more reminiscent of the Trump administration than the EU civil service”. According to the organisation, which is responsible for tracking down any conflict of interest, there is “a striking and massive overlap between the interests of the company Breton headed and the remit of the Internal Market portfolio”, recalling that in 2018 alone, Atos, the company of which Mr Breton was previously CEO, had received nearly €107 million in funding from the European Commission (to consult the analysis: http://bit.ly/2Q88WoR ).
The Hungarian and Romanian candidates reach consensus. The French case contrasts with the candidatures of the Hungarian Olivér Várhely, nominated for Enlargement and Neighbourhood Policy, and the Romanian Adina-Ioana Vălean, for Transport, which were unanimously validated by the Members present (21 votes each time) after a few short minutes of discussion, confirmed several sources.
This could also be explained by a strong presence, a “gallocentrism” on the part of the JURI Committee, with no fewer than eight French MEPs, four (out of nine) of whom are coordinators: François Geoffroy Didier (EPP), Marie Toussaint (Greens/EFA), Gilles Lebreton (ID) and Manon Aubry (GUE/NGL). (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)