Bonum Certa Men Certa

Reactions to Last Week's Thierry Breton Hearing

Thierry Breton Took his Web site offline. And then he deleted certain past employers from his résumé so they thought he's better than Sylvie Goulard.



Summary: Nobody is particularly impressed by Thierry Breton except those who know little about him (and he contributes to this lack of knowledge by obstructing, omitting, and misleading)

THE Breton series is ongoing and can be published in full by month's end. No matter if he's put in power or not (it seems likely), we need to know just what we're dealing with. There are two many problematic connections and people are noticing these.



"Commissioner-designate Thierry Breton is not fit for office," said this account in Twitter on behalf of Left MEPs, as "Breton failed to assuage MEP fears about conflicts of interest. We won't support him for the Commission." Here is their full statement:

Commissioner-designate Thierry Breton is not fit for office, Left MEPs conclude after a disappointing hearing today. The former CEO of Atos, and France’s second nominee after Parliament rejected Sylvie Goulard, will be in charge of a portfolio that largely overlaps with the areas of operation of his previous job. Breton failed to assuage MEP fears about conflicts of interest. The Commission’s Code of Conduct requires a two-year “cooling off” period when Commissioners leave their post yet no such requirement is being asked of Breton in reverse, fuelling accusations of revolving doors. MEP Manuel Bompard (France Insoumise, France) spelled out what a Breton Commission would mean if the rules were followed: “Atos received EU money and is a dominant player in the digital market, so Breton should recuse himself entirely from decisions related to digital issues. “Atos has helped set up a highly questionable tobacco traceability system for the benefit of tobacco companies, so Breton should recuse himself from the revision of the tobacco directive. “Atos manages access to the data of the EU’s Copernicus programme, so Breton should recuse himself from decisions related to the space programme. “In sum, his conflicts of interest would prevent him from delivering on his own portfolio. Unless he wants a fictitious job as France’s Commissioner, he should not become one.” MEP KateÅ™ina Konečná (KSÄŒM, Czech Republic) echoed these concerns: “The biggest problem with Mr. Breton is his obvious conflicts of interest. “Someone who has worked for a company that is a direct beneficiary of numerous EU programmes should not be responsible for decisions about the allocation of these resources. Especially not in the field of EU defence and security,” she concluded.



"Breton is the subject of a complaint by @anticor_org for favoritism," they added. "He and his chief of staff would have weighed in awarding Atos huge public contracts in connection with the management of speed cameras. The two men then became No. 1 and No. 3 in the group."

Atos also killed a lot of people. We'll cover this soon. Thierry Breton is hugely problematic for so many reasons; he has blood on his hands and putting him in charge (inside the EU) would merely cause or instigate more 'exits'. He's a symptom of what people dislike about the EU.

Another group of politicians (EPP Group) wrote: "State-owned economies like China, which buy strategic EU industries and technologies, need to be tackled. Will Thierry #Breton pursue ‘EU champions’ policy’ in that regard?"

"Very clear that Breton is going through," Dave Keating wrote. "The contrast between his hearing and Goulard’s is striking. Everyone, including S&D, has held their fire. Only tough questions came from far left. Once again showing these confirmation hearings are all about theater, not about substance."

Don't mind the corpses around this man. Don't mind the scandals. Breton is facing "tough questions [...] from far left" (whatever that means, sounds like "far right" with a slant).

"On a Greens' question related to personal data protection," a 'Pirate' wrote, "Commissioner-designate Thierry Breton implied today that citizens should be able to sell their data. No indication that personal data protection is crucial in the digital era. That is a confusing answer at best, isn't it?"

Breton promoted Google's 'surveillance capitalism' in Europe; it's in his personal site/blog, which he took offline. We've made a copy of some titles of text. Had he kept his site online, people would see that Breton promoted Google.

"Hearing with Thierry Breton," wrote another person. "Will EU digital policy be credible in spite of Breton's revolving door issue? Are we giving grounds to the US and China to cast doubts about the commissioner favouring his former company and potential European champion #Atos?"

"When I mention the conflict of interests it is not to attack you. It is about democracy," one question is quoted.

Breton is, according to his personal site, a fan of Milton Friedman, i.e. against democracy and for that concept of "corporate globalism" (the market will just 'take care of itself').

Breton's conflict of interest goes way beyond just Atos and according to this Greens' MEP "seeks clarity about how #Breton will manage conflict of interest on digital matters with @Atos. "I am not taking a step away from the sector as a whole", TB. He says he has no "vested interests". Can you really erase years as CEO of a multinational just like that?"

This is a quote from Corporate Europe, which recently wrote:

Breton, head lobbyist

As the CEO of Atos, Breton himself was often at the forefront of its activities to influence EU policy-making. He has twice met with President Juncker to advocate Atos’ positions - quite a privilege as President Juncker logged a relatively low number of meetings in his whole mandate. Breton’s social media also shows that he met with then Vice-President for the Digital Single Market Andrus Ansip and Digital Economy and Society Commissioner Mariya Gabriel.


Benjamin Henrion has taken note of Yann Dietrich, head of patents at Atos, who 2 days ago appeared with the state-backed patent troll "France Brevets". To quote him (French): "[BCF Global] €« Il faut se défaire de cette idée reçue selon laquelle la #propriétéintellectuelle est un centre de coût. Chez OVHcloud, nous avons pris le sujet très au sérieux et déposé plus de 50 #brevets en 18 mois pour sécuriser notre croissance €» Audrey Plantureux d'OVHcloud, Guillaume Ménage de France Brevets, Philippe Therias et Yann Dietrich d'Atos discutent des perspectives de d'entreprises en #croissance lors de l'événement #BCFGlobal à Paris. #PI #startups"

"Independency is crucial for making the European Union fit for the digital age," wrote another person. "It would be better to give the digital portfolio to an other commissioner."

The unfortunate thing about Breton's record is, most tweets about it are in French and the same goes for articles (such as this one). So many people in the EU do not and cannot know what's wrong with this candidate. He has large ego. "We need large companies" he said. It's all about money.

Taking stock of the Rothschild bank stint, Henrion also mentioned [1, 2, 3]: "Macron did the deal for Breton's company to acquire Siemens division #breton #macron #revolvingdoors [...] Siemens: Macron did the merger deal for Breton when he was at Rothschild [...] Rothschild and Macron did the merger deal for Breton's company Atos to acquire Siemens division #breton #macron #revolvingdoors #rothschild"

Breton and Macron worked for the same bank and people. Now Macron recommends Breton, yet only Breton removed that from his CV, as we noted the other day. He did this ahead of the hearing and people have noticed. His site is offline. The omission from the CV is deliberate deception; he should be disqualified for lying. Breton is a longtime liar. He also lied as a politician when asked about the scandals under his watch (and Techrights will publish more about this throughout the weekend and next week). As Henrion noted: "Breton says he does not like to the term 'champion', that is not consistent with his article that vanished from his website: https://web.archive.org/web/20191024093705/https://thierry-breton.com/en/lets-build-european-internet-champions/ …"

There's some more in his site, as Henrion noted [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]: "Breton wants to create Internet Champions https://web.archive.org/web/20191024093705/https://thierry-breton.com/en/lets-build-european-internet-champions/ […] Breton wants to create European Google sized companies, probably lots of public money will be wasted "we prioritise the emergence of European Google-style companies" https://web.archive.org/web/20191024093705/https://thierry-breton.com/en/lets-build-european-internet-champions/ […] Breton Big Companies Delirium is here: https://thierry-breton.com/en/lets-build-european-internet-champions/ … Website under maintenance (hmm the day of the EP hearing), but http://archive.org has only one copy dated of 24 oct 2019: https://web.archive.org/web/20191024093705/https://thierry-breton.com/en/lets-build-european-internet-champions/ […] https://thierry-breton.com/ is down for maintenance #breton What does not want to hide? That's a bad start for a "data" leader [...] http://Archive.org has a backup of Breton website: https://web.archive.org/web/20181210015724/https://thierry-breton.com/fr/ …"

So he's good at making information vanish and contrariwise putting online what ought not be there. One person recalls: "In a set of 30 pages, Thierry #Breton answered MEPs' written questions (a good evening reading). But his first answer sounds somewhat ludicrous if put in parallel with @NikolajNielsen's recent investigation on #Atos (an even better reading actually): https://euobserver.com/justice/146476 pic.twitter.com/5lbwvBZp4A" (also via)

It's an older article entitled "Breton's firm hosted unlawful copy of EU police data" and to quote from it:

Atos, the company recently led by France's choice candidate for European Commissioner, hosted unlawful partial copies of EU police data on behalf of the United Kingdom.

The firm's now former chief executive, Thierry Breton, is slated to head Europe's industrial policy following his nomination to the commissioner post, a move recently approved by European Commission president-elect Ursula von der Leyen.

A confidential document obtained by EUobserver lists years of abuse by UK authorities in the way they handle the Schengen Information System (SIS), an EU-run database used by police to track down undocumented migrants, missing people, stolen property, or suspected criminals. Although not a member of the passport-free Schengen area, the UK has been granted restricted access since 2015 on the premise it would respect the rules.

Despite this restricted access, the UK carried out over 514 million SIS queries in 2016, the second-highest among all EU states.


"Regardless of the outcome of Thierry Breton’s hearing today," one person remarked, "the EU confirmation process for Commissioners is flawed and must be rethought #breton #vonderleyen #ThierryBreton https://twitter.com/alemannoEU/status/1194315993574780929 …"

Another one said: "Commissioner-designate @ThierryBreton committing not to touch the intermediary liability exemption in the forthcoming #DSA #EPhearings2019

"Breton does not mention the term of 'European champion'," said this third person, "but mentions the need to support the industry in strategic sectors... everything is about semantic after all."

He has meanwhile taken his site offline to hide all the terrible things he said and did; "obstruction" is what they call it in the US when Trump and his enablers do the same.

We will separately deal with patent aspects.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Misinformation is Not Intelligence
It's low-grade plagiarism and it fails to show any signs of intelligence
'Tech' Gimmicks Are for Advertising, Not for Usability
In the case of Microsoft, they latched onto slop
BetaNews Sacked Brian Fagioli and Deleted His Comments, But He Still Tries to Use the "BetaNews" Brand for Self-Affirmation
Fagioli takes the work of other people
[Meme] Hard to Be a Better Person?
Sooner or later they'll realise that for each pound I spend they need to spend about 1,000 times more
 
'Tech' is Not Technology
Some people use terms like 'Old Tech'
IBM's Debt Rose by Almost 10 Billion Dollars in the Past 6 Months Alone
The "hey hi" circus is coming to an end
Yes, Master
Gaslighting by actual racists
Microsoft Bribes and Buys Politicians to Tell Europe What to Do About Free Software (Which It's Attacking)
Microsoft: we speak for the thing that we are attacking! Follow the money...
Making Backups Quickly and Reliably
Backups are imperative, more so in an age of uncertainty, unpredictable weather, and worsening standards (quality of products going down while prices go up)
Techrights Investigation: Estimating the Point in Time LinuxIac Turned Into LLM Slop (Part of the Time)
Bobby Borisov got lazy
10th Month, Ten Weeks From Now, at Ten AM
In Wentworth Institute of Technology in Boston
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, July 24, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, July 24, 2025
A Nadella Memo Distracts From Microsoft's Cheapening Of the Workforce
Right now the "MSM" (mainstream media) is flooded/overwhelmed by garbage pieces that relay lies for Nadella
Vanishing Faces of GNU/Linux
Free software projects do not depend on any one person or company to still exist
Microsoft Says It Lost 400 Million Windows Users, Now It's Waiting for GNU/Linux to Stop Booting on 'Old' PCs
When it comes to Windows, Microsoft is fully aware of the issue and statements it made earlier this summer suggest it lost 400 million Windows users
Slopwatch: LinuxTechLab, linuxsecurity.com, LinuxIac, and More
Also: The Register's Microsoft agenda (new editor)
Gemini Links 25/07/2025: Gemtext Aware Titan Editor and Gemini Protocol Comeback
Links for the day
Links 24/07/2025: Convicted Felon Quits UNESCO, "Vibe Coding Goes Wrong", and Signalgate Gets Worse
Links for the day
Gemini Links 24/07/2025: Forgejo Woes and Smolnet Directory Week
Links for the day
Links 24/07/2025: Storage Tapes Still Kicking, Windows TCO 'on Steroids' (Microsoft-Induced Catastrophes)
Links for the day
Bobby Borisov (LinuxIac) Has Apparently Begun Experimenting With LLM Slop, So We Cannot Trust LinuxIac Anymore
So did LinuxIac become a slopfarm? Maybe not yet, but it's getting there
Informa TechTarget's ITProToday is Becoming a Slopfarm Generated by Microsoft Chatbots
Busted.
The LLM Con Artists Are Highly Destructive
Who will ever be held accountable for this scam?
Too Bribed by Microsoft to Move to Free Software?
Microsoft lies and Microsoft bribery (in politics)
New US Editor for The Register is a Microsoft Booster
"Avram Piltch has served as US editor for The Register since July 2025."
Microsoft Hiring European Politicians is Another Form of Bribery; There Should be a European Investigation
When Microsoft bribed people in Europe for OOXML (there's no denying this!) a European government delegate said that Microsoft operated like a cult
Reda Demanded That FSF Removes Its Founder, Now Reda Works Directly for Microsoft
A sellout and a traitor, first working for GAFAM, now Microsoft
PCLinuxOS is Raising Money to Support Development After Fire Incident at the Host
PCLinuxOS has not had announcements lately
Speed of the Site Should be Better Now
The "bot attacks" impact the speed of the sister site too
Getting More From AnalogNowhere
Recently we used many images from AnalogNowhere
Microsoft, Microsofters and 'Secure' Boot Shills Already Storming the LWN Report About Expiring Certificate, Shooting the Messenger
LWN has clearly stuck a nerve
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, July 23, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, July 23, 2025
Disable "Secure" Boot Today (the Only Better Time to Do So Was Yesterday)
Don't trust anything Red Hat tells you about security
Links 23/07/2025: Windows Killed Company After 150+ Years, US Government Mimics Russia's Attacks on the Media
Links for the day
Freedom Generally Wins at the End, History Shows (But It's Constantly Attacked, Too)
At the moment people realise "Linux" (e.g. Android) isn't enough to guarantee any freedoms
Over 3 Months Later Brett Wilson LLP Still Unable to Recruit a Media Lawyer?
"Immediate start", but not found... still unfilled
“Inhumane” and “Disgusting” Mass Layoff Execution, According to Microsoft Staff
The workers are looking for other places to work
The Free Software Foundation (FSF) Has a New Slogan for Its 40th Anniversary
The freedoms are what's most important
Microsoft is Trying to "Pull a Nokia" on GNU/Linux as Desktop/Laptop Platform
We all remember that rather well, don't we?
LLM Slopfarms gbhackers.com, "Cyber Press" and CyberSecurityNews Are Drowning Google News (and Shame on Google for Feeding and Facilitating Them)
All are run by the same people
Links 23/07/2025: Droplets GUI Patent Monopoly Challenge, Nokia Leverages Illegal Patent Court Against Rivals
Links for the day
Gemini Links 23/07/2025: Community in Geminispace and Challenges With Old Computers
Links for the day
Links 23/07/2025: Slop Patents Tackled, Slop Copyright Misuses Tackled by Politicians
Links for the day
Our Three Lawsuits Against Microsofters Are About to Become a Lot More Relevant to GNU/Linux
The Master will easily understand why Garrett has been attacking me since 2012
Links 23/07/2025: Retreating From Transparency on Jeffrey Epstein, We No Longer Have Press Freedom
Links for the day
Gemini Links 23/07/2025: Piano and Food
Links for the day
New and Old
On Ageism in Tech
Slop Is Not Intelligence and It Does Not Enhance Productivity
Like voice dictation, which cannot tell the difference between "sheet" and "shit"
EPO Crimes Are Spreading to the British Court System
Society is now paying the price for failing to tackle crimes at the EPO
It's Time to Dump SharePoint and Here's What to Use Instead
Nextcloud, ownCloud, Bookstack, MediaWiki, and MediaGoblin
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, July 22, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, July 22, 2025
Brett Wilson LLP Has Gone Silent
Sometimes silence says more than nothing at all
Slopwatch: LinuxSecurity, Planet Ubuntu, and LinuxTechLab
some slopfarms show no remorse and they don't value their reputation at all
Links 23/07/2025: Book Bans, Storms, and Kangaroo Court for Patents Commits More Unlawful Acts of Overreach
Links for the day