WHAT IS THE EU AFRAID OF ?

The EU anti-trust chief, Margarethe Vestager, intended to nominate the US economist Fiona Scott Morton to a high rank position in the Commission. This choice of a stellar Yale economist had it all going until the French, acting French yet again, opposed the choice of a non-European.

President Emmanuel Macron is rumored to have vetoed this candidate, arguing that a European national was required. This is disappointing coming from a man who has often avoided the traps of French petulance. However he has lately spoken more often of European sovereignty, suggesting an increased overall autonomy regarding the United States. Such talk already sends  shivers in the Baltics and most Europeans. Break the American umbrella and you get stuck with the Parapluies de Cherbourg. Merci...

France has periodic seizures of self-augmentation--nouveaux philosophes, nouvelle cuisine, nouveau roman, nouvelle vague, economistes de saison, etc.--which can be forgiven. However, if the EU is no longer allowed to attract diverse talent, it will hasten its demise as a drydock for bureaucrats. America works because it attracts. Others often repel. The EU had better beware of the mal français, here and now.