When the head of Arcelor was trying earlier this year to fend off the take-over bid from Mittal, he described his company as the Airbus of European steel - a symbol of Europe's unity and its ability to compete with all comers in strategic industries.

A few weeks ago Christopher Mohn, German head of Lycos Europe, called for the creation of an Airbus of the internet, a counterpart to US rivals such as Google and Ebay. Mr Mohn was referring to Quaero, the search engine project backed by the French and German governments and several big companies. Catching up with Google might take a long time, he said, but the attempt was worth making.