EU antitrust chief pursues active agenda

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - As president of a Dutch business school, Neelie Kroes once awarded former Microsoft chief Bill Gates an honorary degree. But as the European Union's top antitrust cop, she has fined his company millions.

After defying critics who expected her to be soft on business, Kroes now sees her powers on the line in a court decision expected next week stemming from the Microsoft case.

The former Dutch transport minister took over as the EU's top antitrust cop in 2004 with a background in politics, business and education. Her critics argued that she knew nothing of competition and that her service on a dozen corporate boards created a conflict of interest.

But since then, she has aggressively gone after firms she said used their market dominance illegally, imposed a record 2 billion euros in fines for price-fixing so far this year, and is laying the groundwork for U.S.-style private antitrust lawsuits.

"She is more of a doer than a talker," said Sophie in 't Veld, a Dutch member of the European Parliament and one of the few people who accurately predicted that Kroes would be tough on companies. "She gets the job done."

Among those that have crossed her is U.S. software company Microsoft Corp, which she slapped with millions of euros of extra fines for failing to abide by a 2004 antitrust decision by her predecessor, Mario Monti.

Her meetings with chief executive Steve Ballmer only increased her frustration with the company, people close to her say.

That 2004 decision is now under consideration by a European court, which is set to rule on September 17 whether the commission exceeded its powers, a ruling that could curtail the commission's antitrust effort.

ADAPTING

To some extent, Kroes was adapting to a path laid out under Monti under a system with more continuity than for example the United States, where the Justice Department backed away from pursuing Microsoft after George W. Bush replaced Bill Clinton as president.

While she took Monti's policies as a starting point, her style is closer to that of Monti's predecessor, Karel Van Miert.

Monti, an economist and a university president, studied written files closely and used them as the basis for discussion and finely weighed decisions.

Van Miert, who like Kroes was a politician, took a different approach.

"You must keep a proper balance between the very complex legal requirements and at the same time not become so absorbed you will lose your instinct," Van Miert said in an interview.

"She is not giving up her instinct."

For example, when Polish workers protested outside EU headquarters over EU rules requiring the struggling Gdansk shipyard slash output, Kroes invited members of the Solidarity union inside for a meeting.

Like Van Miert, she on occasion has telephoned line-level case handlers when trying to understand cases as they develop, and she also participates when merger deals are scrutinized.

"We expected a greeting and a few anodyne remarks as we had experienced in the past with other commissioners, but she was hands-on and driving it to some extent," recalled a businessman who saw Kroes during negotiations on a major merger.

INDEPENDENT-MINDED

Fluent in Dutch and German, her spoken English can be awkward, which has limited her public speaking and forced her to turn to director general Philip Lowe to give some of her department's high-profile speeches.

"She does not do presentations well," said an economist who has heard her speak to lawyers and economists.

But there are no such impediments when it comes to policy. She is independent-minded but listens closely to her staff and is quick to rise to their defense in meetings with companies.

In addition to going after Microsoft and other companies, she has overhauled her own bureaucracy and barred governments from favoring companies from their own countries.

While next week's decision may give her pause, her aides say that whatever the result, Kroes is likely to press ahead.