OK Jon, good point. This neeeds to be taken into account, which is why Brussels and not Madrid is the correct venue for consideration of the argument.

E.ON’s merger with Ruhrgas created a major national champion in Germany that has been snapping up utilities all over Europe, and it has been argued that it is reaching such a size and dominance in Europe so as to prevent effective competition in the single market for gas – especially as Germany and Austria sit on the main supply routes from Russia. I’m sure the European Commission will have a say on the E.ON / Endesa case and may rule against a merger.

As far as citations go, if you’d asked me last year I’d have agreed with you entirely. It’s just that I often produced posts filled with links, to the point of overkill: faced with so many, people reading wouldn’t bother following any of them. So I decided to try and link only to stuff that I’d want to read in its own right. That said, if there’s a point of fact that’s controversial, or central to a controversial argument, it’s right to want it sourced. And if there’s anything bugging you in what I’ve written, I’d be happy to try to stand it up if I can.

Between 1805 and 1812, 103 Martello Towers were built around the coasts of Britain to resist a potential invasion by Napoleon even though the decisive outcome of the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805 rendered the prospect of invasion unlikely if not entirely remote.
http://www.ecastles.co.uk/martello.html

There was no other naval battle on a comparable scale to Trafalgar until the battle of Tsushima, a hundred years later, between the battle fleets of the imperial navies of Russia and Japan.

Despite De Villepin’s recollection of the battle of Waterloo in 1815 as “a defeat which gleams with the aura of victory” the outcome was fortunately decisive and Napoleon retired to St Helena in the south Atlantic, which rather restricted his subsequent capacity to inflict more destruction and carnage in mainland Europe.

I’m amazed that anyone this side of sanity would wish now to suggest that the outcome of the Napoleonic wars really ought have gone the other way. Europe has already had more than its fair share of meglomaniacs in the last two hundred years.

“It is difficult to fathom the enormity of casualties sustained on Napoleonic battlefields when reading accounts of the various battles. . . Waterloo was a 10-hour battle; therefore, there were an everage of 6,100 casualties per hour of the battle. This is tremendous. Except for a very few battles in World War I, no battle fought in the 20th Century can come close to matching the horror of the typical large Napoleonic battle.”
http://www.napoleonic-literature.com/WE/Casualties.html

s t m? r r ths 911 Cnsprcy Frks bcmng ntlrbl nd, mght sy, qt dngrs? Smbdy pls pt n nd t thr wld cnsprcy thry. t’s bn nrly fv yrs snc th dths f thsnds f nncnt ctzns; hrd wrkng ctzns wth fmls nd frnds wh’v hd thr hrts trn prt by th vnts f 911. t f rspct fr th vctms nd fr th sfty f r ntn’s ftr, rg ll f s t mv frwrd frm th rnts f th tn-fl ht brgd. t’s tgh chllng. Thy r nfd grp stckng t thr nsn nd mpssbl stry lk th gl ndr thr ns whch thy’r prbbly snffng. ky, ndrstnd wht cnsprcy s, tw r mr ppl plnnng sbvrsv ct; nd w hv cnsprcy lws n th bks bcs thy ctlly d hppn ll th tm. Yh, bt ths 911 frks wnt ll f s t chs thr cnsprcy thry vr nthr n.

Hr r th tw tp cnsprcy thrs; ’ll lv t p t ll f y rtnl mndd ndvdls t mk dcsn. thr y jn th rnks f th frks r y jn th nrml wrld f ntllgnc.

Cnsprcy Thry #1 – n 911, nntn dsgrntld gt hrdrs frm th thr sd f th wrld hddn n drk cv pln nd thn rchstrts th mst dvsttng ttck pn th mst hghly bdgtd nd dmntng, mpntrbl dfns systm th wrld hs vr knwn, nd sccds wth hrdly ny mny nd rmd nly wth rzr blds; ths frcng tht ntn t ltr ts wy f lf mr s thn frm ts prvs Wrld Wrs nd mjr mltry cnflcts. n ffct, gt hrdrs wth rzr blds wr mghtr thn ll nms cmbnd frm WW; WW; Krn Wr; Vtnm Wr; tc…

R

Cnsprcy Thry #2 – Sm f th wrld’s rchst nd mst pwrfl ndvdls wth vst rsrcs, tp ntch rgnztnl blts, drct ccss t S mltry pprts nd th mst xprncd nd ntrs clndstn prtn nts n th plnt dcd t mplmnt th 911 ttck t str p ncssry spprt frm th mrcn ppl n rdr t nvd Mddl strn cntrs nd mv clsr t thr gl f bslt cntrl f l mrkts, crtng rcrd shttrng prfts, stblshng lng stndng ntmdtn stnc n th rgn (prmnnt S mltry bss n th rgn) nd prtctn f l rsrcs nd lng trm prfts. Crprt hgmny r bttr knwn s Bnt Mssln pt t, fscsm.

Th 911 Trth Mvmnt s lv nd grwng fst. Fr ths nt n th knw yt, cm bck t rlty nd jn th hndrds f thsnds f cncrnd ctzns wh dsr jstc nd sfr ftr fr r chldrn. Gt nfrmd wth th fcts. Frdmtwn s grt plc t strt. Chck t t, nd thn sk yrslf, n lght f ll th nfrmtn, wht rlly hppnd n 911? r y ntrstd n fndng t mr? Th mst ccssbl nd rtnl vc n th 911 Trth Mvmnt s Dvd Ry Grffn. Hs bks r hghly rcmmndd; Th Nw Prl Hrbr; nd Th 911 Cmmssn Rprt, mssns nd Dstrtns.

(By n mns m nsntng tht gt hrdrs s whl r n vl bnch.)

My guess is, peripheral.
Look for example at this (pdf). It’s eye-opening to see these kind of ideas come from a semi-official source (Jean Pisani-Ferry, incidentally, is a former head of CAE and a co-author of the Sapir Report). But it seems very much out of line with the current trend of both government policy and public opinion.