The British newspaper, The Guardian, says he earns £120,000 a year and lists him at number 30 in their top 100 in the media world. Ireland.com describes him as a mild-mannered Italian, respected for his intellect and charm, but warns that governments can expect little mercy from him. Who is he?

Mario Monti, a 58 year-old economics professor who now has one of the European Commission’s most demanding portfolios, competition policy. Born in Varese on 19 March 1943, he is married with two children. Having taken a first Degree in economics and management at Bocconi University, Milan, he then studied at Yale. Between 1971 and 1985 he was Professor of Monetary Theory and Policy at his old university while being also the economic commentator of Corriere della Sera and a member of various company boards. Eventually becoming Rector and then President of Bocconi University, he also founded the Innocenzo Gasparini Institute of Economic Research, in cooperation with CEPR (London) and NBER (Cambridge, Mass.).

Mario Monti served during the 1995-99 Commission, being responsible variously for the internal market, financial services and financial integration, customs and taxation. Along with his fellow Commissioners, he was forced to resign in 1999 during the corruption scandal which marred Jacques Santer’s period as President. Being untainted by any personal accusations, however, Mr Monti returned to serve under Romano Prodi.

The reason why the Guardian included him in their list of important media people was the fact that he cleared the £87 billion merger between AOL, the world’s largest Internet company, and publishing-to-music giant Time Warner (on the basis that AOL would sever all links with German media company Bertelsmann). His department has also recently agreed to Time Warner taking over the leading UK magazine publisher IPC. It is not the cases the Commission agrees which define its policy, however, so much as the ones it turns down. His predecessor, Karel van Miert, was notoriously tough during his time in charge of competition policy and Mario seems prepared to follow his example. He has already been involved in some notable battles including particularly the GEC Honeywell case described elsewhere in this bulletin. Large fines for car giants VW and DaimlerChrysler have also featured recently.

He is certainly prepared to stand his ground intellectually and the Commission’s press office is kept busy issuing the texts of his numerous speeches, usually long but coherently argued expositions of EU competition policy. Cases such as GEC Honeywell, involving two US companies, have the potential to bring the EU into direct conflict with the American authorities. Indeed, US Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill was quoted as saying that the European Commission, “not elected by anybody,” was meddling “outside its jurisdiction” in that particular case. Mr Monti has politely stood his ground, however, accepting, in an interview with Time, that “We in Europe are a younger and I would say junior institution to the historical antitrust experience of the US” but firmly refuting Mr O’Neill’s comments. The Guardian profile concluded “with an increasingly integrated Europe, Mr Monti’s power can only grow within the region” and it was probably right.