"We are headed to a pan-European market once we get a single currency and the economies are moving more closely together," he said.

The goal "is to have a pan-European market and, at the same time, protect the home market," he said.

It had better be, because the scramble for position in the pan-European market has contributed to an accelerated pace of mergers and acquisitions.

Now, 10 months into the downturn, all the fledgling exchanges are scrambling, both to survive and to establish themselves as pan-European markets.

We are looking for a genuine pan-European single market.

The Member States have said yes to a pan-European financial market, but they have not bothered to consider its impact.

A pan-European market for occupational retirement provision is bound to help in this regard.

Indeed, any such pan-European market will itself be an appropriate means of channelling European investment funds.

In 2001, it re-focused on the pan-European market .

The company recorded sales of over $992 million in 2005 and was fully listed on Euronext, the pan-European market.