FRANCE’S THIERRY BRETON has announced he is quitting the European Commission with immediate effect, claiming EU chief Ursula von der Leyen had asked Paris to withdraw his candidacy for the incoming executive.
The shock resignation of the bloc’s powerful internal market commissioner comes a day before von der Leyen was expected to unveil the makeup of her next commission, in the wake of EU-wide elections in June.
French President Emmanuel Macron had put forward Breton’s name for France’s spot on the commission, and his reappointment to a major role – reflecting the country’s weight within the 27-nation EU – had been taken as a given.
“In the very final stretch of negotiations on the composition of the future College, you asked France to withdraw my name,” the bloc’s internal market commissioner wrote in a letter to von der Leyen, posted on X. “I am therefore resigning from my position as …