<H1>Brussels Brouhaha</H1>At the recent American Express travel management conference in Brussels , Lufthansa senior vice president of European sales and services Gerhard-Michael Eckert was incensed over the EU's subsidizing high-speed rail transport. "We don't mind competition, but we object to subsidization just because it's fashionable," he said. But some felt he went too far when he chided fellow panelist Philip Lowe, chief du cabinet of the European Commissioner for Transport, for not liberalizing the airports themselves, where "a grave mistake" allows ground handling to remain a monopoly.
"All the transport ministers were in favor of liberalizing the airports, except for two who succeeded in blocking this," retorted Lowe. "And one of the two was from Germany.