Times Online - Key day for patrician master of Italian Auto Industry and European Visionary

Times on-line: THE Marquis Luca Cordero di Montezemolo, who took over Ferrari in 1991 puts him at the heart of down-to-the-wire negotiations with General Motors — which owns 20 per cent of Fiat Auto — over GM’s commitment to buy the remaining 80 per cent. Fiat and Ferrari are not just carmakers, but icons. In a sense, they are Italy. The dashing and patrician Montezemolo has inherited the reins of a Fiat empire that embraces not just a troubled car division, but also a famous newspaper, La Stampa, and a famous football club, Juventus. As if this were not enough, he is head of Confindustria, Italy’s CBI, and recently took a trade delegation to China with President Ciampi. Montezemolo says Europe needs greater co-ordination of its economic policy. We are facing giant blocs — the United States, and China, a country of over one billion people that moves as one man because of its dirigiste economy.” Montezemlo has told José Manuel Durão Barroso, European Commission President, that each EU nation should propose five national objectives for growth. “If we pool them, they become a strategy for Europe,” he says.