Commentariat

FT European Comment

Removing advertising from public networks is a viewer-friendly move. But where will state channels find the €450m in annual revenues they receive from advertising when the ban is introduced next year?

Schumacher’s theory – the economist not the Formula One racing driver – that small is beautiful seems increasingly pertinent these days in the case of the European motor industry

The merger of Suez with Gaz de France has formed a European energy champion and the third most valuable French CAC40 blue chip company

There seems no compelling reason to fork out so much cash up front to secure annual cost synergy benefits of about $750m in a company that Roche has controlled for the past two decades

Mediobanca has long been considered an Italian banking exception – a secretive and influential institution at the heart of what was once known as the salotto buono, a lofty and exclusive club of Milanese and north Italian big business

Albert Frère, the veteran Belgian billionaire, has been called many things. Some dub him the Warren Buffett of Belgium. Others describe him as a pioneer of European cross-border deals, a consummate corporate matchmaker and a catalyst for change in the businesses he invests in

Michelin is bound to watch the manoeuvres over Continental with some amusement together with a little and perfectly understandable Gallic smugness

France celebrated Bastille Day with all its usual pomp. But some of the influential rural barons of Crédit Agricole seemed far more busy with their plot to storm their own banking Bastille

On the eve of the Farnborough Air Show, Boeing has put out its traditional long-term outlook for the commercial aircraft market. Given all the problems facing the industry the US manufacturer has inevitably scaled down its forecast on the size of the world aircraft fleet in 20 years’ time

Antonio Brufau, Repsol’s chairman, is clearly finding it difficult to resist the temptation of joining in Spain’s new national sport. Forget football, tennis or even bullfighting. These days all the talk is of who is playing and who will ultimately prevail in the energy game

Carlos Ghosn has always enjoyed driving himself hard. When the celebrity car manager took over at Renault, he set himself the challenge of reviving the French car manufacturer within three years with a rash of new models and more efficient working practices

One by one the taboos of French public service appear to be crumbling. First France Telecom, then Gaz de France and EDF were partially privatised. Now it is the turn of La Poste, France’s third largest employer and a potent symbol of its deeply cherished public-service ideals

The French love tinkering with their tax regime for the purposes of social engineering. The state provides fiscal incentives to buy property, hire home help and have babies. But the government is now becoming enthusiastic about using taxes to persuade consumers to turn green

As the Parmalat scandal rumbles on, Enrico Bondi arrives in the US to battle with banks he alleges were in cahoots with the Italian dairy group’s former management

Both France Telecom and EDF may once have seemed to enjoy infinite government-backed resources, but now that they are privatised or partly privatised the sky is no longer the limit when it comes to big takeovers

Recent blunders at some of Europe’s biggest companies seriously risk undermining their image in the market

Alessandro Profumo plots aggressive expansion in central and eastern Europe where the bank envisages opening 1,300 new branches

Alain Ducasse’s change of nationality has revived debate about the French wealth tax which is increasingly hitting the middle class

The other day the chief financial officer of one of Europe’s leading energy groups noted with undisguised glee that his Italian rival Enel was having all sorts of difficulties in absorbing Endesa, the big Spanish utility it acquired last year. “The Italians are not even being allowed into Endesa’s headquarters in Madrid,” he claimed

After taxing the rich to help the poor struggling with high oil and food prices in Italy the Treasury minister plans to increase the corporate tax bracket rate for oil companies from 27 per cent to 33 per cent

Berlin has been tooling up its arsenal to protect strategic sectors from foreign takeover and casting a close eye on the investment designs of sovereign wealth funds

Although a grand coalition across Italy’s political spectrum is usually regarded as unrealistic there is nonetheless a meeting of minds when it comes to the television sector

The sun was shining in Paris, perfect conditions for France’s biggest unions to rally the troops for a protest against the government’s latest attempts to kill off the 35-hour working week

France has learnt to its cost that when it allows foreigners to move into its heavy industrial sectors, the results are often dire. The Pechiney affair has left a bitter taste in a country traditionally proud of its industrial heritage

The stakes are high and neither EDF nor British Energy is blinking. But someone will eventually have to show their cards if Britain’s nuclear future is not to be compromised