Franse minister van Economische Zaken ontkent interesse in de baan van Neelie Kroes (en)
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS – French economy minister Christine Lagarde on Wednesday (13 May) denied she is interested in becoming the EU's next competition commissioner, as reported by a German newspaper.
"And why not coach of the PSG [Paris Saint-Germain, a French football club]," she said in response to a journalist's question on the matter while visiting Puteaux, France, AFP news agency reported.
"I am trying to do in the best possible way what I have to do within the government as a minister of finance," she added.
According to Wednesday's edition of German daily Die Welt, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso struck a deal towards the end of April, under which the 53-year-old French minister would take over the post from the Netherlands' Neelie Kroes in the next European commission, to be set up in the autumn. For her part, Ms Kroes said she would not run for a second mandate.
The post is among the most influential in the commission, as the EU's executive arm rules on state aid issues, as well as on antitrust cases involving some of the world's biggest companies.
The commission fined US microchip supplier Intel more than a billion euros for hindering competition in the biggest EU antitrust fine in history on the day the Die Welt article appeared.
Securing the job for a French person would be a "spectacular coup" for President Sarkozy, as it would give France "a central role in European economic politics," wrote Die Welt, with the country frequently having clashed with the commission over competition issues.
Earlier in the day, French EU minister Bruno Le Maire said it was a "harebrained hypothesis," while government spokesperson Luc Chatel said: "It is not the media that name the EU commissioners, but it is the president of the republic who will choose the French person who will be in charge of representing our country within the next commission."
"Ms Lagarde does her [current] job very well," he added.
A commission spokesperson qualified the news as one of many "speculations" and stressed that the issue of the nominations for the next commission is currently "not on the agenda."
The composition of the next commission will not be known before its president has been agreed – something that will only happen after the 4-7 June European elections.
But with Mr Barroso already having the backing of Europe's centre-right parties as well as of some Socialist governments, he is seen as likely to keep the top job for another five-year mandate.
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