Following the government reshuffle, Jean-Noël Barrot was appointed minister delegate for the digital economy – a position the tech players felt was lacking in the country.

Read the article in its original French.

The new list of government members was announced on Monday (4 July), two weeks after the second round of the legislative elections, which saw some ministers defeated in the assembly polls.

The appointment of a minister with a digital portfolio in Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne’s government was welcomed by tech players who criticised the previous government for not having a minister exclusively dedicated to digital matters.

Barrot pledged to continue working to “make France a great digital nation” at Monday’s welcoming ceremony for new ministers at Bercy.

Unlike Cédric O, his predecessor operating under the title of Secretary of State, the minister delegate will have a seat at all Council of Ministers meetings. O was only invited to a Council session if the matter discussed concerned him.

“This is good news because, from a protocol point of view, a minister delegate will be able to carry more weight in interministerial negotiations than a Secretary of State. He will have a larger team to support him and will be able to count on the powerful administration that is Bercy,” the startup organisation France Digital said in a statement.

The title again has the term “telecommunications” in it, despite the portfolio referring to “electronic communications” since 2004.

The term sovereignty, however, is not featured in the new title despite it remaining within the scope of the ministry of economy, finance and industrial and digital sovereignty led by Bruno Le Maire – the new digital portfolio’s parent ministry.

A strong finance background

Barrot, the Secretary-General of MoDem – a liberal party close to the majority of Emmanuel Macron’s Renaissance – is a 39-year-old economist with a strong political background.

Previously, Barrot was vice-president of the National Assembly’s finance committee. In 2017, he obtained his PhD in finance from the Haute Ecole de Commerce (HEC), at which he also lectured as an associated professor in 2018. He has also lectured at MIT’s Sloan School of Management.

During President Emmanuel Macron’s first term in office, Barrot worked on France’s post-COVID recovery strategy and on the bill on the growth and transformation of companies.

However, the newly-appointed minister delegate so far has not carried out projects related to digital technology. As part of the Assembly’s finance committee, Barrot sent the government 35 questions, of which only two  – one on open data, the other on so-called “white zones” – related to digital issues, according to reporting by journalist Raphael Grably.

[Edited by Luca Bertuzzi/Nathalie Weatherald]

Source: Euractiv.com