EGN NEWS DESK
Former European Commissioner Thierry Breton stated on Sunday that nobody had pressured him to resign from the EU government however that he’d felt he “needed to do it.”
In his first public feedback since unexpectedly quitting final week, Breton reiterated his criticism of the Commission’s “doubtful governance.”
Breton, who served as commissioner for the inner market since 2019, shocked Brussels by abruptly stepping down final Monday and accusing Commission President Ursula von der Leyen of undermining him. He stated von der Leyen had pushed French President Emmanuel Macron to tug Breton as France’s nominee for the brand new Commission in change for a beefier portfolio.
In an interview aired Sunday, Breton instructed France Inter he “thought-about that below these circumstances [he no longer had his] place on this school” of EU commissioners.
“If I really feel that I’m not snug with this governance,” he defined, “I draw the results. And it was carried out.”
“It was me who resigned, as a result of I felt I needed to do it.”
Breton additionally doubled down on criticizing the Commission and its governance.
“This is the power of our mannequin — whether or not you might be despatched by Malta or France, you could have the identical weight,” he stated. “We should be certain that this stability is maintained and that discussions are horizontal and never vertical.”
Macron nominated outgoing French Foreign Minister Stéphane Séjourné as France’s new choose for the Commission shortly after Breton’s resignation.
Speaking of his successor, Breton stated that he “respects” Macron’s alternative. “My objective is for [Séjourné] to succeed, and he’ll succeed, I’m satisfied of it,” he added.
Breton additionally described French Prime Minister Michel Barnier’s new authorities, introduced on Saturday, as “center-right” albeit “a bit of below the management of the far proper and Marine Le Pen.”
But the previous commissioner stated Macron had been “proper” to nominate Michel Barnier as prime minister moderately than Lucie Castets, the left’s candidate for the job, as a result of the coalition Barnier leads “is extra stable.”
