Quotes By Mario Monti

Italy needed structural reforms to become more competitive.

I hope that my government can help change Italian mentality.

I don't believe we're seeing the beginning of a divergence. We have seen a partial divergence on this case.

Like other antitrust agencies we make our assessment of a merger or antitrust case based on its impact on our jurisdiction, and not on the nationality of the companies. This is exactly what the U.S. antitrust agencies, the Justice Department and the FTC, do.

Italy has piled up huge public debt because the successive governments were too close to the life of ordinary citizens, too willing to please the requests of everybody, thereby acting against the interests of future generations.

It is very unusual for a country to ask guys who are not politicians to come and run the country.

Try to guess my answer to that question, however temptingly you pose it.

In the area of macroeconomic policies, I think we'll see more centralization, like in the budgetary sphere.

I believe that in Europe, we have a collective leadership.

I believe that reforms will not really take hold if they do not gradually come into the culture of the people.

There was in Italy a hidden demand for a boring government which would try to tell the truth in non-political jargon.

A lot of the American press at the time was saying 'just watch what happens when Bertelsmann tries to buy EMI, that will be a moment of truth that will show the Commission's true colors.' Well, that deal never happened either.