The main way in which these markets become 'contestable' is thus via takeovers of less efficient players.

On the Continent you find varying shades of openness. There is a wide variety of views as to the extent one should allow raw capital to be allowed to do its work.

Russia has shown it's not above the temptation of using some bargaining power or blackmail. It shows that if there is a way to get some political-economic advantages from a temporary weakness of your partner, the Russians will use it.

Ninety-five percent of the economists on the continent were with Blair. There is an economic justification to spend more on research and development at the European level.

If they let France (protect its industries) then other countries could just copy and paste, and if you multiply that by the 25 countries of the E.U. it doesn't look very pretty.

In theory this is useful but in practice I would not expect more than changes at the margin.