Following the appointment of Fiona Scott Morton as Chief Competition Economist at the Directorate-General for Competition (DG COMP), the members of the EP Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON) exchange with Margrethe VESTAGER, Executive Vice-President of the European Commission in charge of Europe fit for the Digital Age, and Commissioner for Competition. Opening by Chair of ECON, Irene TINAGLI (S&D, IT) and statement by Margrethe VESTAGER. The transcript is the result of an automated process. Please check against delivery.

Brussels

exchange of views

VESTAGER, Margrethe (DK, CE)

appointment of a member of the European Commission (T)

TINAGLI, Irene (S&D, IT)

Exchange of views with Margrethe VESTAGER, Executive VP of the EC in charge of Europe fit for the Digital Age, and Commissioner for Competition: opening by Chair of ECON, Irene TINAGLI (S&D, IT) and statement by Margrethe VESTAGER

SOUNDBITE (English), Irene TINAGLI, Chair of ECON Committee, I welcome Commission Executive Vice President Margrethe VESTAGER to these exchange of views. ECON coordinators have decided to invite Commissioner VESTAGER following the Commission's decision of July 11th, 2023, to appoint Fiona Scott Morton, a US citizens as the Chief Competition Economist at the Directorate General for Competition (the so-called DG Comp) with effect from September 1st, 2023.

SOUNDBITE (English), Irene TINAGLI, Chair of ECON Committee, I really would like to thank the Executive Vice President for accepting such a request on such a short term basis. Today's exchange is a very good opportunity to announce the cooperation between the two institutions, The openness of our dialog and of our cooperation, I think is very valued, and and we really thank you for being here today.

SOUNDBITE (English), Irene TINAGLI, Chair of ECON Committee, So executive vice president will be given 5 minutes for her introductory statement, and this will be followed by a question and answer session as follows. First round of questions. One slot for political group. One and a half minutes for the initial question and 3 minutes for the answer, with the possibility of a follow up question of half a minute and one minute maximum for the answer.

SOUNDBITE (English), Irene TINAGLI, Chair of ECON Committee, And then the second round of questions. One minute for the question and 2 minutes for the answer. And then if time allows, that would be a possibility for catch the eye at the end. So I just will open the dialog. Executive Vice President, you have the floor for 5 minutes.

SOUNDBITE (English), Margrethe VESTAGER, Vice-President of the European Commission, Well, thank you very much. Thank you for inviting me to this exchange. And please excuse me beforehand if I'm not to speak double speak speech, double speech. It may be slightly longer than 5 minutes. So just that you want I have seen and heard concerns voiced by some on the European Commission's appointment of Professor Fiona Scott Morton as the new chief competition economist.

SOUNDBITE (English), Margrethe VESTAGER, Vice-President of the European Commission, So I appreciate to be able to be here today, to give you some background and nuance to what it is that has been done. Let me start by briefly summarizing the role as a chief competition economist. The Post is a fixed term adviser role, is reporting to the director general of DG Competition. It is held for three years with the possibility of being renewed for a maximum of two years.

SOUNDBITE (English), Margrethe VESTAGER, Vice-President of the European Commission, The purpose is to provide economic advice, quantitative analysis for competition case enforcement, to coordinate the economic debate within DG competition, and to serve as a bridge between DG competition and the rest of the world. In other words, the chief competition economist needs to be an expert in industrial organization economics, and outstanding economic academic who is attuned to current market realities and a strong commitment to public service.

SOUNDBITE (English), Margrethe VESTAGER, Vice-President of the European Commission, The chief competition economist's role is an advisory one. It has no decision making powers, which means that he or she does not decide whether an antitrust case will have to be opened or closed, whether a merger will have to be cleared or prohibited, or if state aid to be approved or declared incompatible.

SOUNDBITE (English), Margrethe VESTAGER, Vice-President of the European Commission, Since the inception of this post, we have been fortunate to benefit from the economic advice of six top notch chief competition economists. Indeed, I could not have set it any better than Professor Chancellor, who, as you know, is himself a Nobel Prize winning economist. So allow me to quote him: 'Dr. Scott Morton is one of the best economists in the world, in the domain of industrial organization, a major contributor to public policy thinking on tech regulation and strongly motivated for public service'.

SOUNDBITE (English), Margrethe VESTAGER, Vice-President of the European Commission, The European Commission and more broadly, US Europeans are very lucky to have drawn someone of her caliber. And these words have since been echoed by an impressive list of high profile European economists in a letter published yesterday.

SOUNDBITE (English), Margrethe VESTAGER, Vice-President of the European Commission, Now, let me try to summarize that and address, of course, the criticism that I have heard. Essentially, I understand that there are two aspects in the view of some who would put in doubt Professor Scott Morton's qualifications for the Post. First, that she's not an EU citizen. More specifically, that she's a U.S. citizen. Second, that she has previously done consulting work, in particular for some companies in the tech sector. Addressing this point, not surprisingly. First, the first one. Then the second one.

SOUNDBITE (English), Margrethe VESTAGER, Vice-President of the European Commission, First, on her being a U.S. citizen. What we are talking about here is a temporary and highly specialized adviser post for which DG Competition must be able to attract talents from the widest possible pool of candidates. It's not an ordinary commission post of a functioneer or a civil servant. In today's world competition cases, they are increasingly complex, including in terms of economic theory, submissions made by companies. And this evolution will not stop. And it will not stop also taking into consideration that now we want to make a success of our two new instruments, the Digital Markets Act and the Foreign Subsidies regulation.

SOUNDBITE (English), Margrethe VESTAGER, Vice-President of the European Commission, It would be wrong, I think, to deprive the commission of and the Europeans that we serve of the best economic advice. And there are not that many people in the world who fit this very specific role and who are on top, willing and, of course, available to take a temporary post in Brussels. And that is why the College of Commissioners took the deliberate decision in March that the Post should be open to applicants of all nationalities.

SOUNDBITE (English), Margrethe VESTAGER, Vice-President of the European Commission, Furthermore, I find it questionable to assume that someone's nationality would automatically lead to a bias in favor of companies originating from that same nationality. In multinational institutions like the European Commission or the European Parliament, commissioners, staff are not banned from working on cases or files that concerns their country of origin. And this would, as you, I think, can imagine, not be workable and it would also be entirely unjustified.

SOUNDBITE (English), Margrethe VESTAGER, Vice-President of the European Commission, Second, about Professor Scott Morton's consulting work. Both Professor Scott Morton and the Commission has been fully transparent on this points, including the fact that some of her past clients have included tech companies. If anything, experience in private companies should be an asset, not an inconvenience. And when it comes to their conflict of interests, which is of course key, the Commission has tried and tested procedures in place to take care of those, and that we do, of course, to protect the commission's and the company's legitimate interests.

SOUNDBITE (English), Margrethe VESTAGER, Vice-President of the European Commission, These procedures have been applied to all chief competition economists, some of whom have also done consultancy work at different points in their career. The Commission, as always, review both pre and post mandate conditions in connection with the signature of an actual contract after the appointment, which has been decided by the College last week.

SOUNDBITE (English), Margrethe VESTAGER, Vice-President of the European Commission, Obviously, you can be sure that we will look into the establishment of the list of conflicts with the utmost degree of professionalism. That work is underway. But what I can already say at this stage is that there is no indication of a general conflict in relation to the Digital Markets Act or to the Foreign Subsidies Regulation.

SOUNDBITE (English), Margrethe VESTAGER, Vice-President of the European Commission, Finally, just a few words on process. The choice to open the application for the post of chief competition economist to candidates of all nationalities for selection purely based on their merits was clear from the vacancy notice published on the Commission website, and that happened already in March. The Commission received 11 application of which four were in line with eligibility criteria.

SOUNDBITE (English), Margrethe VESTAGER, Vice-President of the European Commission, As for any selection of senior positions in the Commission, we followed a clear procedure. Eligible candidates were invited to a selection panel. Successful candidates was subsequently invited to an assessment center, and another selection panel, followed by an interview with the responsible Commissioner and an appointment decision by the college. I hope this background is useful for you to see the details of the Commission decision, and of course, I'm available to answer your questions. Thank you very much.