A US antitrust expert has dropped out of the running for a top job to advise the European Commission on regulating the tech industry following controversy over her nationality.
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Yale University professor Fiona Scott Morton had been hired as chief economist by EU competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager, but her appointment was criticised by EU lawmakers from the right and the left.
French President Emmanuel Macron also took issue with her selection, saying it raised “many questions” and noted that the United States or China would not hire a foreigner to such a job.
In a letter posted by Vestager on Twitter on Wednesday, Scott Morton said she was pulling out due to “the political controversy that has arisen because of the selection of a non-European to fill this position”.
“I have determined that the best course of action is for me to withdraw and not take up the Chief Economist position,” Scott Morton wrote in the letter addressed to Vestager.
Professor Fiona Scott Morton has informed me of her decision to not take up the post as Chief Competition Economist. I accept this with regret and hope that she will continue to use her extraordinary skill-set to push for strong competition enforcement https://t.co/8WSmWYc4LV pic.twitter.com/W3Zb34in7N
— Margrethe Vestager (@vestager) July 19, 2023
Vestager tweeted: “I accept this with regret and hope that she will continue to use her extraordinary skill-set to push for strong competition enforcement.”
(AFP)
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