Sanctions on EU citizens including Frenchman Thierry Breton were “unjustly imposed” by Washington, the French president argued.
French President Emmanuel Macron has asked U.S. President Donald Trump to lift sanctions imposed last year on a raft of prominent Europeans including former EU tech chief Thierry Breton, arguing the measures were “unjustly imposed.”
“I would like to personally draw your attention to the sanctions imposed by the United States against several European citizens, including two Frenchmen, Nicolas Guillou, judge at the International Criminal Court, and Thierry Breton, former European Commissioner,” Macron wrote to his U.S. counterpart in a letter sent last week, according to a report on Sunday by La Tribune.
“I ask you to reconsider these decisions of your administration and to lift the sanctions unjustly imposed on Nicolas Guillou and Thierry Breton,” he added.
Breton and Guillou were among a host of European citizens to be sanctioned by the White House as it targeted European leaders and institutions that it accused of undermining U.S. interests. Sanctioned citizens are blocked from accessing the U.S. and using American tech and payment services.
Breton, formerly in charge of the EU’s tech portfolio, was among the most prominent EU officials to be sanctioned, with Washington citing his key role in designing the Digital Services Act, a landmark tech rulebook aimed at making social media giants more transparent. The DSA was used as the basis for a major fine on American social media platform X last year — provoking outrage in Washington.
Guillou was sanctioned after the ICC issued arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity in connection with Israel’s invasion of the Gaza Strip.