The problem with Verheugen

Günter Verheugen, the European commissioner for enterprise and industry, explained last weekend (24 March) in Die Welt (and in German) why he has been sticking up for the German car industry rather than, say, the French or Italian carmakers. It is apparently in the broader European interest.
Talking about his working life as a commissioner, Verheugen wrote that while it is strictly forbidden to stand up for national interests each commissioner is confronted with “expectations” from his or her home country.
Informing one's colleagues about these expectations is a self-evident duty, he says. But you can only argue for them yourself when you are profoundly convinced that these expectations correspond to the general European interest. “That's why I had no difficulty protecting the German car industry in the sometimes hysterical debate over carbon dioxide emissions because the industry deserved it and all my colleagues shared the view that it is extremely important for the future of Europe how the most important industry in the most important economy develops,” he wrote. An eerie echo of the then chancellor Helmut Kohl's comment that German problems were European problems.