news

한어Русский языкEnglishFrançaisIndonesianSanskrit日本語DeutschPortuguêsΕλληνικάespañolItalianoSuomalainenLatina

【text/observer network yang rong】

just one day before european commission (ec) president von der leyen was expected to give a speech on the new commission roster, frenchman thierry breton, who had been nominated for re-election as eu commissioner for internal market, suddenly announced his resignation on monday (september 16) local time and publicly accused von der leyen of "governance problems."

breton published a letter to von der leyen on the social media x (formerly twitter) that day. the letter stated that a few days ago, in the final stage of the negotiations on the formation of the new european commission, von der leyen pressured france "for personal reasons" to withdraw breton's candidacy; in "political exchange", she promised to provide france with a more influential commission position.

"in light of these latest developments - which are further evidence of the problems with (the commission's) governance - i have been forced to conclude that i can no longer carry out my duties at the commission," breton wrote. "i will therefore resign from my position as european commissioner with immediate effect."

breton's resignation adds challenges to von der leyen's second term, but it also highlights that french president emmanuel macron's reputation in the european union may be declining amid possible domestic political turmoil.

'explosive' allegations

breton, 69, has served as a european commissioner since 2019 and is the candidate recommended by france for the next european commission. according to euronews, breton was expected to get an important position for his re-election, and there were rumors that he was expected to serve as executive vice president and be in charge of the commission's primary policy areas.

politico europe commented on the 16th that breton's move was an "explosive turn" in the power transfer process after the european parliament elections in june. reuters also believed that this development was "unexpected" for the "highly politicized" process of nominating seats for the european commission.

the european commission usually has 27 members, one representative from each member state. according to the appointment process of the european commission members, the eu member states must first reach an agreement with the president of the european commission and propose candidates to represent their country. the president of the european commission must select the commissioners from the candidates submitted by the member states and determine the specific areas of responsibility of the commissioners.

however, the influence of each area of ​​responsibility varies. afp pointed out that the specific allocation of responsibilities among the 27 commissioners will send a strong signal about the political direction of the eu and the relative influence of each member state.

breton made these "explosive" accusations less than 24 hours before von der leyen was expected to announce the next commission list on the 17th. according to euronews on the 16th, a spokesman for the european commission refused to comment on breton's accusations, saying only that von der leyen's interaction with member state leaders on the selection of commissioners was based on "trust and confidentiality."

"the president has noted and accepted breton's resignation and thanks him for his work as a commissioner during his term." according to a spokesperson, von der leyen received breton's resignation letter on the morning of the 16th, but it was unclear whether she was informed in advance that breton would post the matter publicly.

when asked whether von der leyen will still announce her leadership team as scheduled in strasbourg, france on the 17th, the european commission spokesman said that von der leyen still hopes to introduce the details of the composition of the new commission on the 17th, and "24 hours is a long time in politics."

“find good new candidates early”?

hours after breton publicly announced his resignation, macron's office said france would propose foreign minister stephane sejourne as the european commissioner.

the statement said that macron has been seeking to obtain an important european commission position for france, and séjourne "meets all the necessary conditions." euronews said that as a liberal on the spectrum within the european parliament, séjourne has rich experience in eu policy making, but is not as high-profile as breton.

sejourne, 39, has been a close ally of macron since he worked for him at the french finance ministry a decade ago. bloomberg said sejourne played a key role in macron's first presidential campaign in 2017 as a representative of the left-wing branch of macron's then-new party.

after being elected as a member of the european parliament in 2019, sejourne quickly became macron's right-hand man in brussels and played an important role in eu politics. in september 2022, he became the general secretary of the ruling renaissance party. in january this year, he was appointed minister of foreign affairs, becoming the youngest foreign minister in the history of the french fifth republic.

as the second largest member state of the european union, france has made it clear that it hopes to get a key position in the list of the next european commission. macron's office said in a statement on the 16th that it hopes that the areas of responsibility of the commissioner nominated by france will "focus on industry, technological sovereignty and european competitiveness issues." according to a senior french official from the renaissance party, france is not satisfied with the areas of responsibility that breton may be assigned in his second term.

according to two people familiar with the matter who spoke to the financial times, replacing breton with séjournet was a pre-arranged decision between macron and von der leyen during private discussions, and was a means for france to get the "best role" in the next european commission. reuters also quoted sources as saying that macron had negotiated a "strengthened" executive vice president position for the french nominee, responsible for overseeing internal market and industry-related work.

experts: france's "concession" shows its declining international reputation

in fact, the rift between breton and von der leyen is no secret. the new york times, afp and other international media pointed out that breton is known in brussels for being outspoken and not always following the party line. the financial times described the working relationship between von der leyen and breton as "turbulent", with the two often clashing over policies and rhetoric styles.

for example, von der leyen was nominated by the european people's party (epp), the largest political group in the european parliament, for election in march and was re-elected as president of the european commission in june. breton publicly questioned whether the epp should continue to run the eu and said that the epp "does not seem to believe in its own candidate", which caused a sensation. several eu officials told reuters that this angered von der leyen.

in january this year, von der leyen nominated markus pieper, a member of the european parliament and a member of the christian democratic union (cdu) of germany, as the european commission's special envoy for small and medium-sized enterprises. this was questioned by four senior eu officials, including breton, as "nepotism" because this position is one of the highest-level civil servants in the eu institutions, with a monthly salary of about 18,400 euros (about 20,000 us dollars), which can be regarded as a "fat job". after this appointment was "turned up", pieper announced in april that he would give up the appointment.

breton is also known for his public spats with us tech billionaire elon musk. last month, before musk was about to broadcast an interview with former us republican presidential candidate and former president trump on x, breton sent an open letter on x, warning musk that the move could "spread hateful content and false information", which was fiercely fought back by musk.

breton's move caused dissatisfaction among his eu colleagues, and brussels was worried that this move might interfere with the us election. the european commission issued a statement at the time explaining that breton's move "violated the rules" and that the timing and wording of the letter were neither coordinated or authorized by von der leyen, nor agreed to by the commissioners.

ian lesser, vice president of the german marshall fund policy think tank, said that some eu commissioners, including breton, have always been dissatisfied with von der leyen's "centralized leadership style." although lesser believes that von der leyen's leadership style is the key to her success in the past five years, "in the european system, capable and strong people are inevitably not very adaptable to strong leadership from the top."

an eu diplomat told afp that breton's resignation showed that von der leyen had the power to bring him down: "he would not have resigned if macron did not agree to a replacement... so he lost and she became stronger."

from another perspective, this incident can also be seen as a power game between the two major heavyweight countries in the eu - germany represented by von der leyen and france. shortly before breton resigned, macron, whose political power was weakening, appointed michel barnier from the right-wing republican party as prime minister in an attempt to quell the political crisis in france after the early elections that led to a hung parliament.

judging from reports in the past few weeks, it is no secret that von der leyen has been pressuring member states to replace their nominees, but the targets are usually small countries such as slovenia and romania.

for example, on the 6th of this month, tomáž vessel, former president of the slovenian court of audit, announced his withdrawal from the eu commission election, saying that he and von der leyen "have different views on how the european commission should operate." according to multiple slovenian media reports, von der leyen had pressured slovenia to change its candidate because she was dissatisfied with vessel's political strength and hoped to have more female members in the european commission.

mujtaba rahman, managing director for european affairs at the u.s. political risk consulting firm eurasia group, analyzed on the 16th that france's having to choose another candidate shows its decline within the eu and macron's weakening position at home.

“it is very rare for a country to put forward a candidate and then be asked to send a second candidate for consideration,” rahman said. “the fact that there was some friction (between the eu and france) over the personality and mandate does make one wonder why this happened and it also gives us a glimpse into the influence that macron currently enjoys in europe.”

this article is an exclusive article of observer.com and may not be reproduced without authorization.