Frenchman Thierry Breton abruptly resigned as EU Commissioner for the Internal Market on Monday. In a clear letter, he made it clear that he is not seeking a position in President Ursula von der Leyen’s new team of European commissioners.
Breton wrote in his resignation letter on X that von der Leyen had asked Paris to nominate another person in exchange for “a reportedly more influential portfolio for France” within the EU executive.
Breton, the current French commissioner, said this “political assessment” was made “for personal reasons that von der Leyen under no circumstances discussed directly with him”.
The French candidate, who openly criticised von der Leyen’s leadership during the recent European Parliament elections, called this “further evidence of questionable governance” within the commission.
A spokeswoman for the commission declined to comment on the public content of Breton’s letter and the attack on von der Leyen’s leadership of the commission.
The spokeswoman also declined to comment on the agreements between von der Leyen and Paris on the allocation of committee portfolios, citing the confidentiality of the agreements.
The resignation comes as the Commission President plans to present her new leadership team to the European Parliament on Tuesday.
The process had already been delayed due to a domestic political dispute in Slovenia over the nomination of a candidate for the commission.
Von der Leyen is in conflict with EU countries over policy portfolios and is trying to strike a balance between geographical and political factors in the composition of the EU executive.
The issue is further complicated by von der Leyen’s request for EU member states to nominate a man and a woman for the Commission positions, in a bid to achieve gender parity among its 26 commissioners.
The Commission President made an exception to this request for EU countries that wanted to nominate their sitting European Commissioner, such as Breton, for a new term.
However, most EU member states ignored von der Leyen’s request and nominated only one candidate for the commission, the majority of whom were men.
There is no legal obligation in the EU treaties to nominate a man and a woman.
After Breton’s surprise resignation, the Élysée Palace announced the nomination of Stéphane Séjourné, the outgoing French foreign minister. Paris did not nominate a woman to replace Breton.
In a statement, the Élysée Palace thanked Breton and said Séjourné, a former EU lawmaker in the European Parliament, “meets all the required criteria” for the commission.
