France will propose Foreign Minister Stéphane Séjourné to serve on the European Commission after the shock resignation of Brussels heavyweight Thierry Breton, President Emmanuel Macron's office said on Monday, September 16.
Séjourné "meets all the necessary criteria," the Elysée Palace said, highlighting his previous experience leading the liberal Renew group in the European Parliament. It added that he should run a portfolio similar to Breton's focused on "industrial and technological sovereignty and European competitiveness" – a topic dear to Macron's heart.
Macron also thanked Breton, saying he had "strongly contributed to moving forward a policy of European sovereignty in digital fields" including with the bloc's Digital Services Act and Digital Markets Act, as well as "supporting the European defense industrial and technological base" and seeing the EU's single market through the Covid pandemic.
Internal Market chief Breton on Monday said that he was resigning with immediate effect, claiming that Commission President Ursula von der Leyen had demanded from Macron that he withdraw Breton as France's commission nomination. France had been offered "a supposedly more influential portfolio" in exchange for dropping him, Breton added.
A longtime Macron loyalist, Séjourné was made foreign minister only in January this year, becoming the youngest person to hold the office under the Fifth Republic at the age of 38.