Gödöllö, 11/04/2011 (Agence Europe) - EU Internal Market Commissioner Michel Barnier commented on Friday 8 April about the Parmalat question after a meeting of EU finance ministers in Gödöllõ, on the outskirts of Budapest, that the only thing he was interested in was whether EU competition and free movement of capital rules had been respected. He said he was confident that the Italian government would take decisions that respected the EU procedures and rules. Barnier met Italian Finance Minister Giulio Tremonti on the fringes of the meeting following a letter sent by the European Commission to the Italian government, asking for information about its approach to the Parmalat case. The same day, speaking at a competition law conference in St Gallen, Switzerland, EU Competition Commissioner Joaquín Almunia said that if one wanted to get the European economy properly running again, one would have to keep an open, competitive single market and not draw up protectionist obstacles.
Italy is concerned that the Italian dairy company Parmalat has come under the control of France's dairy company Lactalis (which has increased its stake in Parmalat to nearly 30%) and is considering introducing a new law to restrict foreign ownership of strategic Italian companies, based on a similar law introduced in France a few years ago. (M.B./F.G./transl.fl)