(Bloomberg) -- President Emmanuel Macron is in talks with the European Commission to carve out a new, more powerful position for France that would see his nominee overseeing all of the bloc’s efforts to boost its competitiveness.
The plan would make France’s outgoing foreign minister, Stephane Sejourne, an executive vice president in the commission, a person familiar with the discussions said.
Sejourne, 39, would be in charge of crucial portfolios tied to prosperity and competitiveness, according to two people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. The oversight would reflect the agenda laid out by former European Central Bank President Mario Draghi last week on how to harness the EU’s massive single market and integrate its financial sector to avoid a “slow agony.”
Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is expected to announce the make-up of her new commission on Tuesday, and any decisions on the specifics are still subject to change. One of the options being discussed would be to have three executive vice presidents, each overseeing various portfolios, the two people said.
The shake-up in Brussels would represent an achievement by Macron in gaining control over one of the most important issues facing Europe: how to transform the EU’s economy, industry and defense capabilities to be able to compete with countries like the US and China that are already outspending and outperforming the bloc.
This planned move comes after Thierry Breton, France’s outspoken and influential EU commissioner, resigned from his post, indicating he wouldn’t be continuing in the next five-year term. In his resignation letter, published Monday morning, he aimed a volley of criticism at the commission president.
Margrethe Vestager, the EU’s competition chief, will assume interim responsibility for Breton’s internal market portfolio until the new team takes over, von der Leyen said in a post on X.
Spokespeople from the commission and from Macron’s office declined to comment on the plan for the new commission.
The new executive vice presidents will need to represent the political balance in the commission, with the three political groups in von der Leyen’s coalition — the center-right European People’s Party, the Socialists & Democrats and liberal, pro-European Renew — each getting a top job, according to one of the people.
However, Macron’s move comes as he’s contending with a difficult political situation at home, where he’s navigating a hung parliament where no group holds a majority and his own party has also been relegated to the minority. Earlier this month, Macron tapped conservative Michel Barnier to be France’s prime minister, tasked with the duty to form a government amid a deeply divided National Assembly.
It also remains to be seen whether Sejourne, a close ally of Macron, will have as much clout as Breton. He isn’t a household name in France despite becoming the youngest-ever foreign minister in the modern republic earlier this year.
Macron’s choice of Sejourne as commissioner is an attempt to show that the French president’s party in Brussels, Renew, remains at the top of European policymaking, said the person. Sejourne became head of Renew in the EU Parliament in 2021 before taking over the helm of Macron’s Renaissance party in 2022.
And while Breton has embraced Renew’s agenda in his role as a commissioner since 2019 — even being cited as a member of the Renew family on the party’s website — he originally comes from the right-wing party of France’s newly appointed prime minister.
--With assistance from Samy Adghirni.
(Updates with interim replacement for Breton in seventh paragraph.)
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