Paris (AFP)

Political leaders left and right warned Thursday on the choice of Emmanuel Macron to propose Thierry Breton as European Commissioner, which poses in their opinion the issue of conflicts of interest and a possible blockage in the European Parliament.

For EELV MEP Yannick Jadot, "it will be difficult, once again". "Thierry Breton is president of Atos, a digital company that receives European subsidies, is one of the European leaders in supercomputers, again with European subsidies, and in his portfolio, what is it? digital, so we're going to have a conflict of interest, "he said on BFMTV and RMC,

Minister of the Economy from 2005 to 2007, Thierry Breton is proposed for a broad portfolio including industrial policy, internal market, digital, defense and space.

Atos announced Thursday that it would be replaced at the group's general management from November 1 by the current managing director Elie Girard. He will remain the chairman of the board of directors until confirmed by the European Parliament as European Commissioner.

Thierry Breton will be auditioned in the coming weeks by the Parliamentary Committee on Legal Affairs.

MEPs rejected on October 10 the candidacy of Sylvie Goulard, first choice of France.

"A boss of the CAC 40, whose company receives millions of European subsidies! Level conflict of interest prevention, it is not that yet!", Reacted on Twitter the MEP LFI Manon Aubry.

On the right also, where Thierry Breton came from, the question is asked. Julien Aubert, MP Republican (LR), said on RFI that "a week of firing, you have to be careful because Thierry Breton, who is someone with great experience, ran a company and the European rules on conflicts of interest are extremely strict ".

Eric Woerth, chairman of the Finance Committee of the National Assembly, told LCI that the hearing by MEPs, "we realized that it was complicated, but so much better." When a parliament is competent to say yes or not to an appointment, he must exercise this role ".

The Elysee wanted to defuse the issue by ensuring that "Mr. Breton has always been rigorous to avoid any conflict of interest" when he was a minister by deporting on issues that may concern him.

© 2019 AFP