Mr Verheugen told The Independent: “Normally, European champions shall not be created and propped up by national governments or by the European Union They have to result from a market-driven dominance We need a modern policy that strengthens European industry. This month, he called for a debate about how competition policy is applied towards mergers, adding: “If that favours the appearance of European champions, I am clearly in favour of it”. Though he claimed too much was read into his words, they provoked a sharp exchange with the new Competition Commissioner, Neelie Kroes, at an internal meeting.The German Commissioner’s language has since been more cautious. Perhaps to shore up the cause of the liberalisers, the British Trade Commissioner, Peter Mandelson, has been given a key role on the committees related to the Lisbon agenda.Nevertheless Mr Verheugen, who has taken some of the internal market portfolio to add to the industry dossier, has seized the initiative.

Yesterday one of his enemies argued bluntly he is “in the pocket of the German government and the car industry”.Mr Verheugen’s new job coincides with the departure of the two Commissioners who took the toughest, most liberal, line when dealing with Europe’s big companies Frits Bolkestein and Mario Monti have left the Commission. He proposed an industrial innovation agency to help set up scientific and technological projects, and M. Chirac pledged €2bn (£1.4bn) to help it forge new private-public partnerships.Meanwhile, in the past five years the German Chancellor, Gerhard Schr? has clashed repeatedly with the Commission, as it outlawed state guarantees to Germany’s regional banks and fought with Volkswagen over a share structure which impeded takeover bids.Berlin wanted an economy “super-Commissioner” in the new Brussels lineup, ultimately settling for a beefed-up industry portfolio for its representative, G?er Verheugen Mr Verheugen has already raised hackles. That involved lengthy negotiations with Brussels, which tried to impose tough conditions on the deal.This month the political drive for more intervention came to a climax with the publication of a report by Jean-Louis Beffa, the chief executive of Saint Gobain, the French maker of construction material. Praising the Airbus project, he said: “Let us do the same for future sources of energy, the telecommunications of tomorrow, for the drugs of the future. Let’s work together with a real European ambition.”Signs that the pendulum was swinging towards greater state intervention emerged at a summit of the British, French and German leaders in Berlin last February when M Chirac highlighted the need for “national champions”. The baton was picked up by his main political rival, Nicholas Sarkozy, who, during his spell as Finance Minister, negotiated terms for the state rescue of the engineering giant, Alstom.

The first of his objectives will be “to put Europe back on the path to long-term prosperity”.Relaunching the economic modernisation programme started in Lisbon four years ago, Mr Barroso will bury the original ambition of overtaking the US economy by 2010. But the question of how to revitalise Europe’s sluggish economy has sparked an ideological dispute and set national capitals and European Commissioners against each other.At the heart of the debate is a direct call from Paris for increased state intervention to help the private sector create national or “European champions” in key sectors. Today, Mr Barroso will outline his big idea for his five-year term of office, and his top priority can be summed up in four, familiar words: it’s the economy, stupid. The British viewpoint is supported in the main by the former communist countries of Eastern Europe which have benefited from jobs being relocated from the former industrial heartlands of Europe.Yet only last week the French President, Jacques Chirac, highlighted the launch of the world’s largest aircraft, the Airbus A380, as proof that governments can band together, intervene in the market and help create European “champions”. Meanwhile Germany is lobbying for its big industrial players, especially its car makers.British officials recoil at suggestions that the European Union is in the business of defending vested interests, let alone picking “winners” for the future.

A survey by the Lawyer magazine calculates that up to a 100 senior partners could lose their jobs because of the downturn in corporate deal activity. Wipe that smile off your face.m.harrison independent.co.uk. KPMG’s senior UK partner says we are suffering from a shortage of accountants, or perhaps that should be a deficit Mr Rake’s own firm rather proves the point. He earned £2.45m last year while the average pay of his colleagues rose 9 per cent to £451,000, which demonstrates that money tends to go where the skills are scarce.If the thought of a world where there are actually too few accountants is more than you can bear, then blame Kenneth Lay. The Enron scandal was as much a comeuppance for the accounting profession as it was for the one-time Texan darling of the energy world. The demise of Arthur Andersen promised a new era of austerity for the remaining Big Four accountancy firms, tougher regulatory controls and the loss of all that lovely consultancy business that went with the audit.In fact, it has proved to be a boom time for the profession. The demands of Sarbanes-Oxley and the rigours of the new international financial reporting standards have meant we need more, not fewer, accountants.

Gordon Brown has done his bit by doubling the number of Budgets each year. As for separating audit from consultancy, what has been lost on the swings is won back straight away on the roundabouts. But with no sign of progress, the temptation to call in the loans and substitute a new management must be powerful. Bankers are not born to run transport companies but shorn of its debt-servicing obligations, Eurotunnel could clean up on the short straits market and start making money for somebody.If it were not for French sensitivities about one million private shareholders being left stranded on the other side of the Channel, substitution might already have happened Plus ?change.Called to accountHe’s a card that Mike Rake. Anyway, it fails to address the central problem, which is that the tunnel is in danger of sinking beneath its £6.4bn of debt.If the situation is dire now, then the outlook is even worse. From the end of this year, Eurotunnel must start paying its interest bill in cash, not IOUs convertible into shares.