On U.S. relations, Schmit criticized the Commission for not publicly defending former commissioner Breton, who was handed a travel ban by Washington over what it views as unfair efforts to regulate American social media and tech giants. Commission spokesperson Thomas Regnier told POLITICO at the time that the College of Commissioners agreed to provide Breton with legal and financial support.
Breton was the commissioner who pushed through and helped enforce the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA), a piece of regulation designed to enforce content moderation policies on large online platforms.
Schmit said the laws that the U.S. is unhappy about — regulating digital services and digital markets — were adopted by all 27 commissioners, including von der Leyen, and not by Breton alone.
“This is the point where we should have shown more solidarity and said ‘no, it’s not one, it is all of us.’ But you know, courage is not always shared, including in political spheres,” he said.
Schmit also took aim at the Commission’s deregulation push, which seeks to slash red tape in areas ranging from technology to environment policy through so-called omnibus packages.
He said that although it can take too long to come up with laws, “in just one moment, you can issue this anti-legislation or try to draw back the whole thing.” He said this was “not a good way” to deal with the issue of reducing bureaucracy.