After Italy’s former central bank governor, Antonio Fazio, flagrantly abused his position to block a takeover of an Italian bank by ABN Amro, member countries agreed that future mergers would be assessed on five objective criteria, the idea being to prevent governments from blocking foreign bids purely for protectionist reasons. Noyer’s diplomatic skill certainly will be put to the test if he has to navigate the treacherous waters between the Scylla of French protectionism and the Charybdis of the EU’s five criteria for bank mergers.