Last week, French President Emmanuel Macron proposed Breton as French candidate for head of industrial policy at the European Commission after his first choice was rejected by EU lawmakers.

Breton, who was finance minister under late President Jacques Chirac, has been chief executive at technology group Atos since 2009 and led the turnaround of telecoms giant Orange in the early 2000s.

Two weeks ago European lawmakers rejected Sylvie Goulard, Macron's initial pick for European commissioner.

(Reporting by Geert De Clercq; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)