Karel van Miert is a name that sends shivers down the spine of many a car manufacturer. Volkswagen leamt to its cost that you do not mess with the European Union's competition supremo when it was fined pound;68 m last year for blocking Italian dealers from selling vehicles to Germans and Austrians. Although he is now part of the outgoing administration that resigned en masse earlier this year following the lack of confidence vote by the European Parliament, it has not stopped him in his quest as the consumers' champion. He is now raising an eyebrow at the pound;150 m state aid BMW won for Rover's Longbridge plant and wondering aloud whether there really was a viable Hungarian alternative, and he is also tweeking the tail of DaimlerChrysler.
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