Scott Morton, an American economist, withdraws from running for a key EU post after controversy

With French President Emmanuel Macron insisting the European Union needs more strategic independence, he seemed decidedly piqued on Tuesday over the EU head office’s plans to hire an American expert as its chief competition economist.

“Is there really no great European researcher with academic qualifications that could do this job?” Macron asked at a summit of EU leaders with their Latin American counterparts.

In a bloc of some 450 million people, “is there no one in the 27 member states that has a researcher good enough to advise the (European) Commission? That is a real question mark,” Macron said.

The EU’s executive commission announced last week that it had appointed Yale economics professor Fiona Scott Morton as chief competition economist in its department tasked with ensuring that “all companies compete equally and fairly on their merits within the single market, to the benefit of consumers, businesses and the European economy as a whole.”

Macron insisted that he has nothing against Scott Morton herself, an economist with multiple diplomas from elite schools.