Mario Monti never got around to overhauling the European Union's rules on state aids in the way he updated its merger and anti-trust procedures. So it is apt that Neelie Kroes, his successor as EU competition commissioner, should devote her first press interview to outlining, in the FT, her plans to reform the state aid regime to reflect the EU's enlargement to the east and its proclaimed priority of boosting competitiveness.

Ms Kroes's aim is for "less and better state aid". The reduction in national subsidies in the EU is happening anyway. They fell quite sharply during the late 1990s boom - from a total of €67bn (£46.6bn) in 1997 to €52bn in 1999 - and since then more slowly, by about €1bn a year. But achieving "better" focused state aid will be harder.