Von der Leyen set to reward France with bigger EU top job after Breton’s exit, French officials say

PARIS — French President Emmanuel Macron is negotiating a powerful, wide-ranging competitiveness portfolio within the European Commission for his new commissioner-designate Stéphane Séjourné ahead of Tuesday’s announcement by Ursula von der Leyen.

The French commissioner would hold an executive vice president role overseeing a so-called cluster with several other commissioners under its remit. That would give France a leading role over parts of EU policy on trade, research and innovation, economy and financial services and capital markets union, according to several people familiar with conversations. 

Some see the elevated role as a reward for France after its now-former European Commissioner Thierry Breton resigned on Monday. Breton and Commission President von der Leyen have had a fraught and tense relationship, with Breton publicly criticizing his boss in recent months.

“I cannot say it because it’s a sort of open secret but yes, it became clear at some point that the name [of Thierry Breton] was part of the negotiation,” a French official with knowledge of the talks said on condition they remain anonymous.

The rumor that Macron would eventually drop Breton circulated for weeks, if not months within Brussels circles. Calls had intensified between Macron and von der Leyen last week, amid fears in Paris that France’s portfolio was being watered down, before Séjourné was swapped in for Breton, according to three French officials who were granted anonymity because they were not allowed to comment on the matter.

In exchange for Breton’s head, two French officials said, Paris had pushed for control of key European policy departments, also known as “Directorates-General,” which are how commissioners wield their authority.

Those include administrative powers related to competition, research and innovation, trade, economy and finance.

Breton, before he quit, was internal market commissioner. In his resignation letter on Monday, Breton accused the Commission president of removing him in “a political trade off [for] an allegedly more influential portfolio.”

Von der Leyen is expected to unveil her College of Commissioners, made up of the president herself and 26 commissioners (one from each member country), on Tuesday having already postponed it once in order to secure greater gender balance on the team.

The potential new remit for outgoing Foreign Minister Séjourné would reflect Macron’s push for the bloc to grow alive to what the French president called mortal global threats due to a lack of innovation, under-investment in key industries, and spiraling energy prices. It would be a hard-earned win for Macron, who has been weakened at home by defeats in the June European election and then in a snap French legislative election.

“It says something about the decline of French influence that [they] weren’t able to impose Thierry Breton,” a senior EU official said.

“The real issue here is that we were unable to get a guarantee of a large portfolio beforehand.”

It remains unclear whether Séjourné will give orders to these policy departments directly; French and European Commission officials were skeptical.

Former Commission Executive VP Margrethe Vestager was also in charge of a “cluster,” within which Breton expanded his power under her supervision. He turned out to be a free agent, however, who gathered more power over the years.

“Did Vestager’s position as [vice president] give her power over Breton? We give [vice president] posts to those [to whom] we don’t want to give real responsibilities,” they said.

“The real issue is who gives orders to the DG, and we’ll see about that [tomorrow] in the decrees.”

Several EU insiders doubted that von der Leyen could hand Macron such a wide-ranging portfolio without upsetting other countries. Although it’s not a rule, the policy department in charge of competition matters doesn’t tend to go to powerful countries like France or Germany, in order to balance the division of power among member countries.

Another French official said they doubted von der Leyen would give Séjourné too much power, and suggested she was likely to try to amass more power for herself. “We got screwed as we no longer have the same leverage,” they said.