(Bloomberg) — President Emmanuel Macron has nominated Stéphane Sejourne, France’s outgoing foreign minister, as the country’s new commissioner to the European Union, following the sudden resignation of Thierry Breton.
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“His commitment to Europe will allow him to fully support a sovereign agenda,” the French president’s office said, commenting on the new appointment.
Breton, the influential leader of the EU’s internal market, resigned as the EU’s executive on Monday, saying France had been asked to provide another candidate for the next Commission.
The surprise move complicates Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s task of starting the new five-year term, likely delaying its planned Nov. 1 start. It also underscores the troubled relationship between von der Leyen and Breton, who said in his resignation letter that her request was “further evidence of questionable governance.”
Breton said von der Leyen had asked France to withdraw its name as a nominee “for personal reasons which you have under no circumstances discussed directly with me”, and that in return France would be given a more influential role in the commission.
Macron ally
Sejourne, 39, has been a staunch ally of Macron since he worked for him at the French finance ministry a decade ago. Sejourne played a key role in Macron’s first presidential campaign in 2017, representing the left wing of Macron’s then-newly founded party.
He was elected to the European Parliament in 2019 and quickly became a key player in EU politics as Macron’s man in Brussels. Sejourne became the head of the centrist Renew group in the European Parliament in 2021, before taking the helm of Macron’s Renaissance party in 2022.
Sejourne kept his local political hat open when he was appointed earlier this year as the youngest ever foreign minister in the modern French Republic.
In a written statement from his office, Macron thanked Breton for his “important contribution to promoting a European sovereignty policy in the field of digital technology.”
A spokesman for the committee said von der Leyen thanked Breton for his work but declined to comment on deliberations on his role, calling them confidential. The committee did not immediately say who would take over his duties at the committee.
Von der Leyen was due to announce her new commission in Strasbourg on Tuesday. She has already struggled to push forward a gender-balanced commission, a process that has caused delays.
That deadline came under pressure after the Slovenian opposition party led by populist Janez Jansa postponed the confirmation of its Commission candidate.
Breton’s departure could also further complicate plans to boost the EU’s competitiveness, as he was in charge of the bloc’s industrial policy portfolio and had championed joint loans for areas such as defence, another of his policies.
Breton was the bloc’s industry chief and was also the chief enforcer of the new Digital Services Act, which regulates content moderation on social media platforms. As such, he often dealt with Elon Musk’s X and Meta Platforms Inc. He was previously CEO of French software maker Atos and France Telecom, France’s finance minister and a best-selling science fiction author.
During his five years as head of the Commission’s Internal Market Unit, the 69-year-old has overseen the introduction of a raft of ground-breaking digital regulations, including the DSA rulebook on content moderation, the Artificial Intelligence Act and the Chips Act.
–With assistance from Gian Volpicelli and Jorge Valero.
(Updates with Breton background from the third paragraph, Commission statement in the ninth.)
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