The headline is misleading. It really should be “EU commission under fire for giving EU job to US economist”. I don’t think anyone is blaming her for taking a job that was offered to her.

This is an interesting debate. Many people say she is the best woman for the job and her being an American who worked for the Big tech is only one added advantage, bringing that knowledge along.

On the other side, this could be a sovereignty and reciprocity issue. A European would never be nominated for an equivalent job in the US. So I find it fair to discuss, but maybe this is a discussion that should have happened before. If there’s no legal restriction to hire a non-European, there’s no basis to attack this nomination in particular.

In any case I praise Vestager for not being afraid of breaking this tabu.

One interesting aspect of the hiring of Scott Morton is that the US and the EU have very different approaches to competition. EU has competition law seeking to regulate market behaviour in order to boost competition. The US does not have as strong competition law, but instead has a proud history of antitrust, where companies are split up by force if they manage to get too big (think Standard Oil).

This is interesting because the EU now finds itself challenged by companies that have grown too big, and on which antitrust might be a good option. Meta is the best example: Splitting Whatsapp, Threads, Instagram, and Facebook into separate companies would do wonders for competition in the social media landscape, and it’s no secret that there’s a war going on between the Commission and Meta.

Of course she might just have been hired because she’s the most qualified, but I think hiring an American for this position might also be an indication of the direction the Commission intends to move in.

**Update: **

"Dozens of prominent European economists on Monday declared their support for the appointment of Fiona Scott Morton as the European Commission’s new chief competition economist."