“Competition as an ideology, as a dogma: what has it done for Europe?” asked France’s new president, Nicolas Sarkozy, at last week’s European Union summit. It is a good question, perhaps best answered by the citizens of Estonia or the Czech Republic, new EU member states with painful memories of what an economy without free competition looks like.

Competition as an abstract idea – still less as a “dogma” – is not the sort of thing that people rush to the barricades to defend. Yet it is fundamental to the European way of life and the prosperity Europeans enjoy. Competition keeps executives honest and prices low, allows fresh ideas to emerge and sweeps away incompetence, profligacy and corporate arrogance. It is too important to be the arbitrary plaything of the larger European states.