PARIS: French President Emmanuel Macron recently reached out to U.S. President Donald Trump in a letter asking him to lift sanctions on several European figures, including former European Commissioner Thierry Breton and ICC judge Nicolas Guillou, as revealed in an AFP report.
In his letter, Macron made a personal plea to Trump, asserting that the sanctions were unfairly imposed. This correspondence was initially reported by La Tribune Dimanche.
Breton has been barred from entering the United States since December 2025 due to his role in regulating digital platforms in the European Union, which the Trump administration claims interferes with freedom of expression. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio criticized EU regulations as “blatant acts of extraterritorial censorship.”
Macron pointed out in his letter that these sanctions violate the EU’s autonomy to regulate its own affairs and emphasized that EU laws do not apply within U.S. borders.
Judge Guillou faced sanctions from the U.S. in August 2025 alongside other International Criminal Court judges due to his involvement in a warrant targeting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
As a result of these sanctions, Guillou not only cannot enter the U.S. but has also had his bank card withdrawn by a French bank that uses the U.S.-based Visa system, preventing him from accessing U.S. online services like Airbnb and Amazon.
In his letter, Macron argued that such sanctions undermine the independence of the judicial system.
