End of term report

I’ve not always been a big fan of Neelie Kroes, largely because of her fondness for consumer-centric views on competition – see, for example, here  and here.  But as Neelie approaches the end of her term in office, even I was taken aback by the venom of Andrew Orlowski’s damning assessment in The Register.  The title of the piece  gives you the general idea: 

“So, farewell then Steelie Neelie: you were worse than useless”.   

Orlowski accuses Kroes of ‘a wide-eyed pandering to fads’ and, as a result of paying too much homage to Silicon Valley, a failure to establish ‘a distinctly European vision’.  There’s certainly some truth in that but I thought the following was unjustified: 

“”If anything Kroes has made progress more difficult by polarising debate and institutionalising stupidity”.

Whatever else she did, Neelie always had her eye on the need for new investment in network infrastructure and she regularly made attempts to understand the obstacles to that (such as her series of ‘round tables’ with European CEOs). Just this week, her Office drew attention to new rules on state aid, aimed at reducing red tape and easing the provision of public support for investment in broadband projects.

 

So, perhaps less effective than she wished but Neelie was consistently well-intentioned.