Many expected a possible extension of the hearing process in the European Parliament of the Commissioner candidate for the Internal Market. In the end, Frenchman Thierry Breton received the support of a two-thirds majority of the parliamentary committees Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE) and Internal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO) on Thursday 14 November.
“Frankly, it’s a great relief, his validation is deserved: he has done an excellent job and even some who were rather opposed were quite won over”, Christophe Grudler (Renew Europe, France), coordinator at ITRE, told EUROPE. “He has also set an ethical example beyond what is required”, said Geoffroy Didier (EPP, France).
On the other hand, there was great disappointment on the radical left and within the Greens/EFA group, both groups regretting that, for the first time, “a CAC 40 boss is moving directly from his position to that of European Commissioner” and fearing conflicts of interest between the portfolio attributed to Mr Breton and the business sectors of the Atos group he led.
After a brief discussion between the coordinators of the political groups, the Frenchman, not surprisingly, received the support of Renew Europe, the EPP and the ECR, but also the S&D. Doubts remained until the last minute about the S&D vote, which had voted for additional questions to be addressed to the Frenchman in the Committee on Legal Affairs (JURI) (see EUROPE 12367/1).
Before the hearing, the Spanish and Italian delegations of the Social Democratic group were in favour of the cause, but doubts remained for the others, particularly within the German delegation. Finally, the two Romanian and Danish Social Democratic coordinators gave the green light, bringing the results to 98 votes in favour, we were told.
Another uncertainty: the fact that Renew Europe supported additional questions to the EPP candidate for Commissioner for Enlargement and Neighbourhood Policy, the Hungarian Olivér Várhelyi (see other news), was of particular concern within the liberal group. The French delegation, in particular, feared reprisals from the right against the French candidate.
Clean slate
At the end of the hearing, the relief was palpable in the ranks supporting the Frenchman’s candidacy. MEPs were much less on the offensive than at Sylvie Goulard’s hearing (see EUROPE 12346/1). The issue of potential conflicts of interest was therefore relatively absent from the parliamentarians’ interventions, particularly the S&D group, with the exception of Tiemo Wölken from Germany.
As soon as he had the opportunity, Mr Breton sought to clarify his situation, brandishing a thick file in front of members of Parliament on the certificates of sale of his shares. “The shares were sold on the market and to no one in my family”, he said. His retirement plan? In the same vein, he is now completely disconnected from the future of Atos, he asserted.
How can potential conflicts be managed once in office? The candidate indicated that he will never know anything about contractual or financial decisions related to Atos or any of the group’s subsidiaries. These decisions will be decided by another Commissioner within the von der Leyen College.
Mr Breton did not hesitate to improvise additional commitments. He assured that he will never meet, alone in his office, members of his former company, Atos. However, he added that under no circumstances would he abandon entire sectors of activity under his jurisdiction.
However, his closeness during the hearing with Andrus Ansip (Renew Europe, Estonia), former European Commissioner for the Digital Market, with whom he worked while he was CEO of Atos, raised eyebrows among some observers.
A Commissioner for the Internal Market... very digital
Mr Breton’s strategy of devoting the limited time to preparing the hearing to hearing MEPs (more than 50, according to him) has therefore paid off. It allowed him to calibrate his speech as closely as possible to the expectations of the various parliamentarians.
In his portfolio, Mr Breton has sought to satisfy as many different groups as possible, particularly the most recalcitrant groups, not hesitating to give Social Democrats guarantees on the social dimension of the internal market, on environmentalists in the fight against greenhouse gas emissions and on the ethical aspects of defence. He also stressed the need to take better account of SMEs in an attempt to convince MEPs from small Member States in Central and Eastern Europe, but also German Social Democrats.
But if there was one aspect that marked his intervention, it was the transversal nature of the digital challenge linked to his portfolio. “The raison d’être of this portfolio is to raise awareness of the challenges of tomorrow’s growth in the information space, i.e., the space of digital data that crosses all dimensions of the internal market from beginning to end”, said the former engineer by training. He called for “investing now in the critical technologies of the future”, not hesitating to mention “6G” and “post-cloud” among his areas of interest.
Like Sylvie Goulard before him, he has undertaken not to question the limited liability of the platforms. But he confirmed an “adaptation” of the obligations of the major platforms, particularly in areas such as “the fight against hate, discrimination, terrorism and messages of child pornography”.
The candidate also clarified his views on the European framework for artificial intelligence (AI) and the European strategy towards a common data market, rejecting the observation that Europe has lost this race to innovation to the United States and China. According to him, the data exist, and the challenge today is to give European companies access to them.
On condition, of course, that their owners agree, he said.
On artificial intelligence, he said that the first 100 days initiative announced by the President-elect of the Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, would be used mainly to establish “guidelines on ethical aspects”. “I would like us to have a vision”, he declared, specifying that he would not push to settle this issue too quickly.
On the subject of the single charger for mobile phones, however, the candidate Commissioner did not rule out the possibility of regulating at the end of the impact assessment currently being carried out, given the absence of results from the voluntary approach.
European champions
Knowing the hostility of his future Competition colleague Margrethe Vestager on the issue of EU-wide industrial champions dear to the Franco-German duo (see EUROPE 12344/2), Mr Breton said he did not like the term “European champions”. But, beyond semantic considerations, he supported the need to develop European branches in strategic sectors, as has been done in the electric battery sector, without disrupting the internal market. He nevertheless called for a review of the competition rules, which he said were obsolete.
What is more, the French candidate referred at length to the case of SMEs, insisting on reducing administrative obstacles and access to finance, in particular by reopening the directive on late payments. He also focused on developing workers’ skills to meet market needs. Like Ms Goulard, he recalled his project to create the post of “SME spokesperson”, an emissary to bring up the grievances of SMEs.
In addition, Mr Breton was very cautious about the outcome of the ‘e-card’ and prior notification directives, which failed in the previous legislature (see EUROPE 12261/4).
Defence, the poor relation
As with Sylvie Goulard’s hearings, the defence was the poor relation of Mr Breton’s hearing. “We can no longer be naive, we must start to acquire our own means of defence”, he said, recalling that one of the first tasks to be carried out will be to set up the new Directorate-General for Space and Defence within the Commission.
Mr Breton promised that he would fight for the European Defence Fund to be allocated the €13 billion proposed by the Juncker Commission.
Asked about space policy, the candidate Commissioner-designate recalled that Europe had a civil relationship with space and that it would remain so, while promoting dual technologies. “I will promote dual technologies, particularly those with a dual purpose, particularly in space”, he added. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens, Camille-Cerise Gessant and Sophie Petitjean)