Brussels, 06/05/2002 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission has cleared the acquisition by Edison, an electricity company belonging to the Italenergia group, which in turn is controlled by the Fiat group, of sole control of Italy's electricity generation company Eurogen. The purchase of Eurogen will take place through Edipower, a vehicle company created for the purpose of the acquisition by Edison and industrial and financial partners AEM Milano, AEM Torino, ATEL, UniCredito Italiano, MRBS Capital Partners and Interbanca. Eurogen is the largest of the three electricity generation companies that Italian incumbent electricity company Enel must sell according to an Italian decree ("Bersani decree"). The other two are Interpower and Elettrogen (Elettrogen has already been sold, to Endesa of Spain, an operation cleared by the Commission in September 2001). The Commission has not objected to the acquisition, which will give Italenergia a strong incentive to compete with Enel for the increasing number of eligible customers resulting from the liberalisation of the Italian electricity market. It is estimated that, as a result of the ongoing liberalisation process, approximately 2/3 of the overall Italian market will be open to competition in the year 2004.