When the EU (does not) Recruit – The Scott Morton Controversy: Defending Institutional Autonomy Protection and Redefining Conflicts of Interest at the European Commission

Résumé 0

One week after she was appointed chief economist at the European Commission’s DG Competition in July 2023, Fiona Scott Morton resigned due to the controversy her appointment generated. This controversy is analysed as a moment of clarification of the social expectations that must be met in order to occupy the role of an economist in a specific administration and, inseparably, of the tensions that run through this institution. Based on a socio-historical study of the European executive and ethnographic materials specific to this controversy, the article shows how the refraction of such tensions led to the problematisation of two social properties of the American economist (her consulting activities and her nationality) and led to her ouster. This micro-sociological perspective thus links the short and long life of an institution to describe how one of its agents appears out of tune in a particular social configuration.