On Tuesday 18 July, members of the European Parliament’s Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON) held a hearing with the European Commissioner for Competition, Margrethe Vestager, following the controversial appointment of Fiona Scott Morton as Chief Economist of the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Competition (see EUROPE 13224/7).
Margrethe Vestager emphasised that the role of chief economist consisted of providing economic advice and quantitative analyses to implement competition policy, coordinating the economic debate within DG Competition and acting as a bridge between this Directorate-General and the rest of Europe.
She added that this post was an advisory role and was not linked to decision-making powers: the role did not involve deciding whether or not to open or close an anti-competitive practices case, or approving state aid or mergers.
The Commissioner returned to two aspects of the criticisms levelled at Ms Scott Morton: her non-European nationality - she is American - and the fact that she has carried out consultancy work for tech companies.
According to Ms Vestager, the position is temporary and highly specialised, and requires a combination of skills that few people in the world have, and they had to be available and willing to apply. The Commissioner added that Fiona Scott Morton is an expert in the economics of industrial organisations and a renowned academic who knows the realities of the market and is dedicated to public service, adding that it would be wrong to deprive the Commission and citizens of the best possible economic advice.
The Commissioner explained that this was the reason why the College of Commissioners had decided in March to open up the post to candidates of all nationalities. The Commission received 11 applications, 4 of which met the eligibility criteria.
Margrethe Vestager felt that a person’s nationality did not necessarily make them biased towards that country. She also stated that security clearance was not necessary, as “we do not work with information that requires it”: “What we do is that we have classified and non classified documents. And we have handling of that including when we employ non EU nationals so that is not an issue”.
With regard to conflicts of interest, an issue that has particularly raised MEPs’ concerns, the Commissioner stated that “as always, the Commission examines the pre- and post-employment conditions before signing a contract, once the appointment has been decided by the College”. Ms Vestager said that the review was underway, but that so far there had been no indication of a conflict of public interest in the context of the law on digital markets or the law on foreign subsidies.
Asked about situations where Ms Scott Morton would be prevented from working on competition cases (see EUROPE 13223/4), Ms Vestager said that such cases would be few in number (a handful or less) and that a member of her team would then replace Fiona Scott Morton in her advisory role.
With Stéphanie Yon-Courtin (Renew Europe, French) and Kira Marie Peter-Hansen (Greens/EFA, Danish) expressing concern about potential revolving doors, Margrethe Vestager felt that the Commission had been particularly strict over the last 2 years in applying the conditions established after the affair involving José Manuel Barroso.
Earlier in the day, the French president, Emmanuel Macron, questioned the effectiveness of Fiona Scott Morton’s appointment if she were to remain on the sidelines in certain cases. He also wondered, alongside the EU-CELAC summit, if no European researcher had the skills for this work, adding that, if so, this was worrying and that massive investment was needed in academic economic research. (Original version in French by Émilie Vanderhulst)