Luxembourg, 21/09/2005 (Agence Europe) - The Court of First Instance has announced its confirmation of the decision by the Commission of 9 December 2004 in which it declared the takeover of Gas de Portugal by Energias de Portugal and the Italian company ENI to be incompatible with the common market (see also EUROPE 8844). According to a press release, the European judges feel that although the Commission has made mistakes relating to the gas markets, the reinforcement of the dominant positions of Energias de Portugal on the electricity market is enough in itself to justify the Commission's decision. The Court stated that the Commission made no manifest error of appreciation in taking the view that the merger would remove a major rival - GDP-from all the electricity markets. This would help to reinforce EDP's dominant position on each of these markets, with a consequence of a significant obstacle to effective competition, it concluded.