The spectacular resignation of Thierry Breton from the European Commission suggests that the president of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen is not quite as useless as her numerous critics suggest. Breton’s departure was overdue. Credit to von der Leyen for wielding the long knife.
Breton’s arrogance was exceeded only by his uselessness. After Mario Draghi’s taxonomy of European decline last week, the role of Breton as commissioner in charge of the single market was a nonsense. Draghi said Europe is on a path to self-destruction, becoming nothing more than an open-air museum, sustained by tourism.
Breton’s arrogance was exceeded only by his uselessness
Gavin Mortimer wrote here that Draghi admitted to having ‘nightmares’ about Europe’s future if nothing can be done to halt what he described as the ‘slow agony’ of the continent’s decline. It is a damning indictment of how moribund the EU has become that of the world’s leading 50 tech firms only four are European.
‘For the first time since the Cold War, we must genuinely fear for our self-preservation, and the reason for a unified response has never been so compelling’, explained Draghi. And nobody has contributed so much to this decline as Breton, a former economy minister in Paris 20 years ago and for the past five years Macron’s man in Brussels. His critics say he left every business he ever managed in ruins (Atos, Bull, Thomson), nevertheless always failing upwards, finally ascending to a lofty enough position to scare tech investors to flee Europe.
The numbers speak for themselves. In 2008, the Eurozone and the US had comparable gross domestic products (GDP) of $14.2 trillion (£10.7 trillion) and $14.8 trillion (£11.2 trillion) in current prices. In 2023, the eurozone’s GDP had edged up to just over $15 trillion (£11.8 trillion), while America’s stood at $27.4 trillion (£20.4 trillion). America has innovated, the EU has regulated. And while China and America plough ahead, Europe is sclerotic.
Breton has personally done more than anyone to inhibit technological progress in the European Union. He is responsible for the EU Artificial Intelligence Act which has made it impossible to build an AI startup in Europe. He is responsible for the Digital Services Act which has been used to stifle free speech in Europe. He has launched a war against X in Europe, threatening Elon Musk.
Breton said Musk must comply with legal obligations under the EU’s digital rulebook hours – including proportionate and effective mitigation measures regarding the amplification of harmful content – before the billionaire interviewed US Republican candidate Donald Trump live on his platform.
Musk replied on X, inviting Breton 'to take a step back and literally, fuck your own face.' Asked to comment on Musk’s comment, a spokesperson for the EU executive said, memorably, that the institution 'does not comment on comments'.
Breton’s case against X under the DSA over the handling of disinformation on the social media platform last December was nonsense, and only poisoned the reputation of the EU as a putative global censor.
In preliminary findings published last month, Breton said that blue checkmarks used on the platform were deceptive. Users were assumed by Breton to be too stupid to realise that these marks are paid for. In response, Musk said the EU had offered a secret deal to technology companies that accepted Breton’s censorship regime.
A tasty irony is that Breton announced his resignation on X, the very platform he threatened to censor. He used the platform to reproduce his inelegant resignation letter, including a thinly coded attack on von der Leyen herself. He claimed (accurately) that von der Leyen had pressured France, his home country, to submit another candidate to replace him.
'A few days ago, in the very last stretch of negotiations on the composition of the future of the College, you asked France to withdraw my name – for personal reasons that in no instance you have discussed directly with me – and offered, as a political trade-off, an allegedly more influential portfolio for France in the future College,' Breton wrote.
Breton has been roundly praised by the usual soup servers for his magnificent contribution to Europe on behalf of France and was even mentioned as a candidate for a big ministerial job in the centrist technocratic government being put together by Michel Barnier. I suspect this is unlikely.
Breton has been replaced by Stéphane Séjourné, former foreign minister, former boyfriend of former prime minister Gabriel Attal. What he will bring to the job we don’t yet know.
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