She even still drives an old smart fortwo that she bought back in 2000 while living in Brussels, where she was the head of Daimler for Belgium and Luxembourg.
Yet even here, while officials in Brussels express a sign of relief that, in their opinion, the worst of Europe's economic crisis is behind them - the poor are getting poorer.
Years of hostile headlines about the European Union have made sensible public debate of Britain's EU interests almost impossible: instead successive governments talk tough at home while pursuing pragmatism in Brussels.
There is, of course, an irony that, while fishing authorities in Brussels openly declare their support for a moratorium on bluefin fishing in the Mediterranean, their rules continue to allow tuna to be caught by boats which were constructed with the help of public subsidies and processed in factories built, similarly, with EU financial aid.
The Baa-Baas will face England at Twickenham, an International XV in Brussels while the third fixture is to be finalised.
While all this wrangling goes on in Brussels, the industry is changing shape.
While fighting raged on the ground in Mali, officials in Brussels discussed plans for the future.
Ministers say they are furious that BMW was discussing the sell-off while the UK government was in negotiations with the European Commission in Brussels over an aid package for Rover's Longbridge factory.
Car sales across Europe fell by 8.2% last year, according to the Brussels-based car industry group ACEA, while sales in France dropped nearly 14%.
To make those distributional consequences even more egregious, the word from Brussels is that while depositors will get hit, the senior creditors who own bonds in the banks (including, naturally, some of the racier hedge funds) will escape scot-free.
FORBES: Links 17 March: Cyprus Bailout And Predictions Of Disaster
While the state aid rules require the UK government to represent the banks' interests in negotiating with the commissioner in Brussels, the chancellor, Alistair Darling, used a BBC Scotland interview to reassure that the changes will not scatter the banks to the four winds, and nor will the changes be instant.
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