France picks Sejourne as nominee for EU Commission after Breton clash

reuters_tickers

By Michel Rose and Foo Yun Chee

PARIS/BRUSSELS (Reuters) -France picked Foreign Minister Stephane Sejourne as its new candidate for the next European Commission as the incumbent, Thierry Breton, abruptly quit on Monday with tough words for the EU’s re-elected executive chief Ursula von der Leyen.

This was an unexpected twist in the highly political EU power transition that follows the June European elections and in which key jobs in the bloc’s powerful decision-making institutions are shared out for the next five years.

But ditching Breton, who had publicly clashed with von der Leyen, was the price to pay for France to keep a big portfolio in the next European Commission team, which von der Leyen is expected to announce this week.

A source familiar with the matter said President Emmanuel Macron had negotiated a beefed up internal market and industry executive vice-president brief for the French nominee, overseeing a cluster of commissioners.

As the EU’s second-biggest member state, France made clear it wanted a major post in the shake-up of key jobs in EU institutions that follows the June elections.

“The President has always sought to obtain a key European Commission portfolio for France, focused on the issues of industrial, technological sovereignty and European competitiveness,” Macron’s office said in a statement.

Sejourne, 39, is a Macron loyalist, a close ally who chairs his party and a former EU lawmaker who led the party’s ticket in the 2019 European Parliament election.

He has kept a low-key profile at France’s foreign ministry, which he has been leading since January, and where he stuck to, and defended, Macron’s line.

In his resignation letter, Breton said that von der Leyen had asked France “a few days ago” to withdraw his name as its pick for the Commission “for personal reasons” in return for an “allegedly more influential portfolio”.

“In light of these latest developments – further testimony to questionable governance – I have to conclude that I can no longer exercise my duties in the College,” Breton said in the letter.

KEY JOBS

Von der Leyen’s office declined to comment on Breton’s allegations and his resignation. A Commission spokesperson said von der Leyen still hoped to be able to present the proposed new Commission team on Tuesday.

Breton, one of the highest-profile members of the European Commission for the past five years, is best known for sparring publicly with tech billionaire Elon Musk and playing a key role in shaping the 27-nation EU’s Big Tech regulation, its COVID-vaccine response and efforts to boost defence industries.

A former French minister and business executive, he was the EU’s industry and internal market commissioner during von der Leyen’s first term. He had backed the telecoms sector’s push to get Big Tech to help fund the rollout of 5G and fast-speed broadband across Europe.

But Breton and von der Leyen’s relationship took a turn for the worse over recent months. The French commissioner, a liberal, angered von der Leyen by publicly criticising her nomination as the European conservative EPP’s party candidate to head the Commission for a second term, EU officials have said.

Breton’s public feuds with Musk had also been met with dismay among other Commission colleagues, officials added.

Nevertheless, the latest developments were a surprise, a person with direct knowledge of the matter said, adding that Breton had been expected to be reappointed by von der Leyen.

The move can also be seen as a power play between the EU’s two biggest heavyweights – von der Leyen’s home country Germany and France – over who calls the shots in the EU at a time when Macron is weakened at home after having lost EU and French parliamentary elections.

(Writing by Ingrid Melander; Additional reporting by Tassilo Hummel, John Irish in Paris, Andrew Gray, Sudip Kar-Gupta in Brussels, Bart Meijer in Amsterdam; Editing by Angus MacSwan and Ros Russell)