Mario Monti

I understand that Italy could have been associated with the idea of an undisciplined country in the past.

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.

Like other antitrust agencies we make our assessment of a merger or antitrust case based on its impact on our jurisdiction, and not on the nationality of the companies. This is exactly what the U.S. antitrust agencies, the Justice Department and the FTC, do.

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.

So I think democracy, in the long-term, in our countries will survive if it comes to be associated with leadership, will not survive if democracy plus media brings to us more and more followship rather than leadership.

All I am saying is I will be a senator - should there be any special circumstance where the political forces would believe that there might be a need for my service, I would consider it.

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

I know this isn't a widespread view in the Anglo Saxon world, but I believe that much of the reconciliation between more centralized governance and the scope for democracy - democratic control - will be resolved through an even stronger role of the European Parliament.

The absence of political personalities in the government will help rather than hinder a solid base of support for the government in parliament and in the political parties because it will remove one ground for disagreement.

That statement was not addressed to the authors of political statements. I said that I deplore attempts to misinform the public and to /trigger/ political intervention. And there were such attempts.