Hans-Jürgen Schlamp
Hans-Jürgen Schlamp has been Spiegel’s Brussels bureau chief since 2005. An economic and social science graduate from the University of Cologne, he worked for public radio WDR for eleven years. In 1986, he joined Der Spiegel where he was correspondent in Bonn and Rome.
Updated: 10 June 2009
Axel Weber has taken himself out of the running, and the candidate from Finland has also withdrawn: That leaves an Italian, Mario Draghi, in line to succeed Jean-Claude Trichet as head of the European Central Bank. A man from a deeply indebted EU nation may now be tasked with saving the euro. 
European politicians are has-beens exiled to Brussels and then written off? Wrong, writes Der Spiegel. A post at an EU institution promises power and, above all, money. Especially for commissioners. 
With her appointment as the EU High Representative for Foreign Policy, Catherine Ashton has become overnight one of the world’s most powerful women. But her role, considered even more prestigious than that of EU President, is not without pitfalls, reports Der Spiegel. 
The blacklist of dangerous airlines compiled by the EU in 2005 should have cleared the skies of flying dustbins. However, the recent Yemenia Airways Airbus disaster reveals major shortcomings in the how airlines are monitored, Spiegel observes. 
While the EU is bent on cleansing the financial markets of gamblers and toxic assets and taming the banking sector, London, Dublin and parts of Eastern Europe are fighting for free markets.