“There is no French, Martian or Jupiterian in the American administration”, ironically Jean Quatremer who denounces “a form of naivety”

“There are no Frenchmen, Chinese, Germans, Martians or Jupiterians in the American administration”, quipped this Tuesday on franceinfo Jean Quatremer, journalist specializing in European issues, after the appointment of the American Fiona Scott Morton to the European Commission as chief economist for strategy at the European Directorate for Competition. However, she advised Google, Meta and Amazon. His arrival coincides when Europe is preparing to put in place new legislation to regulate the Gafam sector (Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon, and Microsoft).

You say, you, that this appointment is a political fault?

Absolutely. Because even if some people want to believe that it is xenophobia to attack his passport, but his American nationality is obviously a problem. Do you know of any other large country, which would appoint in its antitrust division for example, or in its military staff someone who does not have the nationality of the country under the pretext that he is very competent ? It absolutely does not hold up. Obviously we have extremely competent economists, we even have a Nobel Prize in economics named Jean Tirole who teaches in Toulouse. So we could have offered him the job.

You say that we are in the wrong debate. It is not chauvinism that is in question, it is a form of European naivety?

It is a form of European naivety because we have national interests, European interests to defend. And it’s not for nothing that there are no Frenchmen, Chinese, Germans, Martians or Jupiterians in the American administration. Of course, the condition of nationality exists in all our States. So I heard some commentators say ‘yes, but look, we already had an American boss at Airbus’. Airbus is a private company. We are an international organization which is quasi-state and obviously these posts must be reserved for nationals. So if Mrs. Scott Morton becomes European, settles permanently in Europe, I will see no problem, even if she has a double passport, that she exercises this function, but not there and especially not when the Union European Union finally adopts regulations for Gafam. Now is the time to have, on the contrary, a European vision and approach to these digital giants and not an American approach.

Does the Parliament have any chance of pushing the Commission to reconsider this choice?

I have never seen the Commission go back on choices that fall within its exclusive competence. Because you know, here, the European Commission is like the Vatican, they are the guardians of the European faith and the Commission will never admit that it was wrong. So the only chance we have of coming out on top of this case is that Fiona Scott Morton, realizing that she will be challenged during the three years of her contract, withdraws from herself , that is to say give up coming by saying ‘Listen, there are too many problems. I had not realized that I was going to have to deal with such a challenge, so I am withdrawing.