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

There is no government in Europe where ministers go through that kind of confirmation process, which in fact is modeled on the way the U.S. cabinet members are confirmed.

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

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

I believe that in Europe, we have a collective leadership.

Reference to the territory and total disregard for the nationality of the companies is of course the best guarantee that competition assessment remain just that and doesn't get affected by trade or other considerations.

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.