Goody - goody!

First of all, apologies for light blogging. Other commitments yesterday meant that I did not even switch on the computer (withdrawal symptoms were severely dealt with) and today I am desperately finishing a paper on the common foreign policy that is months overdue and seems to grow every time I just want to tweak it a little.

However, I could not let this item on the europhiliac EUBusiness site go without a mention.

The European Commission adopted plans on Monday to ease rules for granting public aid to projects that create jobs, boost economic activity, protect the environment or help women entrepreneurs.

"These new rules set out a clear framework to allow member states to grant aid targeted at creating jobs, boosting competitiveness and improving the environment without the commission having to get involved," Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes said.

When Neelie Kroes was appointed to be the Commissar for Competition (an oxymoron, surely) there was much rejoicing in the world. Ms Kroes was supposed to know how a business works. After all, she had been out in the big bad business world herself.

Not precisely as her official profile shows. She sat on numerous boards of private and public corporations, which is not quite the same as running a business.

Above all, she clearly shares the view of all politicians and regulators that it is government that makes business successful not entrepreneurs or people who run businesses. So, they need to be taxed and regulated for their own good and then given grants, for which they have to fill in forms and complete a great deal of paperwork to use the money for purposes the government, in this case the EU, thinks appropriate. Then they wonder why European countries are falling behind in the world competitive stakes.