Algemeen·NRC·20 jul

Meet the committee to buy Europe

Europe wants bigger firms. Its apparatchiks say so every time they talk about integration and competitiveness. „The leaders want true European champions,” announced António Costa, the Portuguese head of the European Council, in February. „We limited consolidation, constrained risk and postponed cross-border investments,” complained Mario Draghi, an Italian banker who wrote a door-stopper of a report on the topic, in a speech in May.