Thierry Breton stepped down because the EU commissioner for the inner market immediately, utilizing his letter of resignation to criticize European Fee President Ursula von der Leyen’s management. The announcement got here as a shock, not least as a result of von der Leyen was set to suggest the slate of commissioners for her second time period to the European Parliament tomorrow. (AP)
Our Take
It’s not typically that political intrigue and maneuvering for affect on the European Union makes for headline information, however Breton’s resignation is noteworthy for a variety of causes. For one factor, he has been an activist member of von der Leyen’s self-described “geopolitical” European Fee, with a portfolio—the inner market—that has put him on the coronary heart of the commerce and tech points driving a variety of international politics over the previous 5 years.
In that capability he has helped design and lead the union’s efforts to spice up its protection industrial sector, impose anti-dumping tariffs towards Chinese language electrical automobiles and regulate Huge Tech and social media. As a part of the latter initiative, he most not too long ago engaged in a high-profile public confrontation with Elon Musk over disinformation unfold on X, previously Twitter.
However that alternate reportedly created tensions with von der Leyen and Breton’s fellow commissioners, because it was not coordinated with or licensed by the fee. For his half, Breton was identified to have been vital of von der Leyen’s administration model. So their private variations nearly actually contributed to Breton’s determination to resign.
His determination can also be noteworthy as a result of it comes as von der Leyen is busy assembling her crew of commissioners for her second time period, with every member state awarded a commissioner’s portfolio. This era typically raises the depth degree of intra-EU politics, as member states have interaction in lobbying, arm-twisting and horse-trading in an effort to safe plum positions of affect and status for his or her nationwide candidates.
French President Emmanuel Macron has already named Stephane Sejourne, the outgoing overseas minister and a staunch Macron loyalist, to exchange Breton as France’s nominee for the fee. Macron has not but publicly acknowledged what portfolio he has in thoughts for Sejourne, however his workplace launched an announcement saying that the French president “has all the time defended acquiring for France a key portfolio” centered on the problems of commercial and technological sovereignty, and European competitiveness. That implies he will probably be attempting to safe the identical position that Breton held.
Whether or not Sejourne will have the ability to fill his predecessor’s sneakers is one other matter. Earlier than becoming a member of the fee, Breton had a protracted and illustrious profession as a enterprise chief within the French and international tech sector, making him a beneficial asset for Brussels over the previous 5 years. Within the meantime, the intrigue serves as an additional reminder of France’s home political turmoil and highlights the methods by which that turmoil might have an effect on France’s—and Macron’s—affect in Brussels.
In Afghanistan, the Taliban started implementing a brand new non secular code issued final month that topics girls to a number of draconian restrictions. Ladies is not going to be permitted to lift their voices in public or have a look at males apart from their husbands or relations, and should cowl the decrease half of their faces, amongst different guidelines. The measures are simply the most recent in a sequence of setbacks for ladies’s rights in Afghanistan within the three years for the reason that Taliban took over following the U.S. withdrawal.
As Charli Carpenter wrote in July, the Taliban’s therapy of girls poses a dilemma for human rights advocates and worldwide diplomats in search of to interact with the Taliban to affect their insurance policies on gender equality with out legitimizing their therapy of girls. One potential answer to the dilemma, Carpenter wrote, is for Afghan males to step up and advocate for the rights of their wives, moms, sisters and daughters.
Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger will problem new biometric passports below the auspices of their not too long ago fashioned Alliance of Sahel States, which was created after navy governments seized energy in all three nations. Within the wake of their navy coups, all three nations additionally introduced their withdrawal from the Financial Group of West Africa States, or ECOWAS, of which that they had been an element.
The transfer is one other step within the ongoing bifurcation of West Africa into competing blocs. As Afolabi Adekaiyaoja wrote in April, this shift has been accompanied by diminished Western affect within the area—Mali and Burkina Faso not too long ago severed longstanding ties with France and Niger ended a navy accord with the USA—and a pivot by the area’s new governments to Russia.
Geopolitical Competitors Is Reshaping West Africa
April 30, 2024 | The latest determination by the navy junta ruling Niger to revoke the nation’s safety partnership with the uswas simply the most recent in a sequence of developments which have remade the geopolitical panorama of West Africa. Learn extra.
Iran says it efficiently launched a satellite tv for pc constructed by its Revolutionary Guard Corps into area. As Shahryar Pasandideh wrote final yr within the wake of Iran’s final satellite tv for pc launch, regardless of such obvious successes, Iran’s area program faces “enduring technological challenges” and has not but demonstrated a capability to “place militarily helpful satellites into orbit.”
The chief of Georgia’s governing occasion, Bidzina Ivanishvili, has brought about a political uproar within the nation by saying that Georgia ought to apologize to the individuals of South Ossetia for Georgia’s 2008 battle with Russia over the breakaway area. As Frida Ghitis wrote in April, Ivanishvili’s Georgia Dream occasion is engaged in an ongoing marketing campaign to attract nearer to Russia, towards the desires of the pro-EU majority of the nation.
