France’s Pascal Lamy, the current head of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), advises average-sized countries to unite in order to be better heard within the EU vis-à-vis influential countries, such as Germany and France, in an interview on the website of the Austrian daily newspaper Standard. The former EU commissioner for external relations recalls the influence exerted in the 1980s by the Benelux countries (Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg): “When the Benelux leaders had a clear position, France and Germany could not ignore it and had to take it into consideration”. “In the EU27, we need a Benelux of a new kind, not just Belgium and the Netherlands, but also countries such as Austria, Portugal, Ireland, Hungary, Greece and Slovakia. They have the potential to unite, not against other members, but in order to channel ideas and themes”, he says.