European outcry sees US economist withdraw from top job

French president Emmanuel Macron was not the only person to criticise the appointment (Francois Walschaerts/AP)

The American candidate to become one of the European Union’s chief economists will not now take up the position because of the political controversy it has created, the bloc has announced.

The day after French president Emmanuel Macron criticised the appointment of Fiona Scott Morton because of her nationality, the Yale economics professor wrote in a letter to the EU’s executive commission that she had “determined that the best course of action is for me to withdraw and not take up the chief economist position”.