Two leading lights of European policymaking locked horns in Brussels on Monday night over one of the most important strategic questions facing the EU: what to do about China?
Peter Altmaier, Germany’s economy minister and Angela Merkel’s right-hand man, is leading a charge to revolutionise Berlin’s attitude towards promoting “European giants” to compete with Beijing’s best.
His sparring partner last night was Margrethe Vestager, EU competition enforcer, who has frustrated some in Paris and Berlin for standing in the way of that dream.
The Danish commissioner in February blocked a proposed rail merger between Germany's Siemens and France’s Alstom — a case that triggered a bout of European introspection over foreign competition and whether Brussels’ merger rules are still fit for purpose.