It is very unusual for a country to ask guys who are not politicians to come and run the country.

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

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.

If the euro becomes a factor promoting Europe's drifting apart, then the foundation of the European project is destroyed.

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.

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

If governments let themselves be fully bound by the decisions of their parliaments without protecting their own freedom to act, a breakup of Europe would be a more probable outcome than deeper integration.