I have the most profound respect for the Department of Justice and the FTC. We in Europe are a younger and I would say junior institution to the historical antitrust experience of the US.

Europe has to avoid old prejudices and new ones. That means north versus south, rich versus poor.

There was in Italy a hidden demand for a boring government which would try to tell the truth in non-political jargon.

Not all Greeks are ready to do whatever is necessary to stay in the euro.

This is certainly not the first case in which a merger approved in one place hasn't gone through in the other. There was a case last year where the merger between two EU companies was approved here and blocked in the U.S.

Growth in any individual European country has to be the result of policies for growth pursued in that country consistent with budgetary discipline.

In the area of macroeconomic policies, I think we'll see more centralization, like in the budgetary sphere.