My aspiration is not to be loved. It is that my government be respected and credible.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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