When the Italian finance minister, Giulio Tremonti, last week likened the frantic manoeuvring by European governments to erect protectionist barriers round cross-border mergers and acquisitions to "the August 1914" effect and the outbreak of the First World War, his comments were more apt than perhaps he realised.

With the energy and electricity sectors at the fore of the latest deals, it brought to mind the famous line by the British foreign secretary, Sir Edward Grey, in August 1914 that "the lights are going out all over Europe: we shall not see them lit again in our lifetime".