Macron rebuke forces big tech adviser Fiona Morton to quit EU economist job

A former adviser to Silicon Valley has walked away from a post as the European Commission’s chief competition economist, hours after a stinging rebuke from French President Emmanuel Macron.

Fiona Scott Morton, an economics professor at Yale University, said in a letter to European Union Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager that she’s decided to not take up the position set to begin in September, “given the political controversy that has arisen because of the selection of a non-European to fill this posi-tion.

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Vestager tweeted the letter on Wednesday, saying she’ll accept “this with regret. “Just last night, Vestager told a European Parliament in a grilling over the appointment that the commission wanted to appoint a chief economist “based on the merits and not on their passport.”

Scott Morton is a former adviser to companies including Apple Inc. and Amazon.com Inc., and is serving as an “economic expert on behalf of Microsoft Corp. for its current acquisition of Activision Blizzard Inc. which is facing challenges from regulators on both sides of the Atlantic.”

Speaking on the sidelines of a meeting of EU leaders, Macron on Tuesday said he “would be open to such a hire if Europeans were given similar jobs” at the heart of decision-making at the White House or in China. But it was “extremely worrying if it was true that there was a deficit of European economists who would have been suitable for the post instead of the American.”

Macron’s attack on the appointment follows criticism from minis-ters in his government as well as lawmakers in the European Parliament.

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