Edith gets hot under the collar

Date: 05/10/1995

A meeting of Industry Commissioner Martin Bangemann's information society group turned into a shouting match between two of his colleagues.

Competition Commissioner Karel Van Miert came to the meeting last week armed with a paper from DGIV which stressed that the EU's tough competition rules should be applied as strongly to the multimedia sector as to anyone else.

But Science, Research and Development Commissioner Edith Cresson jumped in, complaining that while Van Miert was tying the hands of European media companies their US counterparts were merging to their hearts' content.

As the two traded angry words, others around the table kept a low profile. So anxious were Commissioners Mario Monti and Marcelino Oreja not to get embroiled that both stared pointedly at their shoes throughout the exchange.