What Is Wrong with EU Antitrust Policy?

George Pieler at CNet News tells us:

The road to a blissful united Europe may be strewn with constitutional pitfalls, but the members of the European Commission are unwavering in their collective commitment to out-regulating the United States and Asia.

EC President Jose Manuel Barroso announced that "we at the Commission are thinking of an idea that I find very interesting, and that is the funds from fines imposed on companies that break competition rules could go to development aid." . . .

[T]he writing is on the wall: Microsoft (and other multinational companies, especially American ones) is a reliable cash cow for Europe, and what better way to cement Microsoft into Europe's budget process than to link Microsoft's fines to a nebulous anti-poverty crusade?