Brussels, 08/11/2006 (Agence Europe) - The merger between the Spanish motorway toll concessionary, Abertis, and its Italian counterpart, Autostrade, should now be able to continue without hindrance from Italy, but the Commission is keeping an eye on developments, not only from the point of view of competition rules but also regarding internal market rules. Neelie Kroes, Competition Commissioner, said after her meeting on Tuesday evening with the Italian Public Works Minister, Antonio Di Pietro, that she was delighted the Italian authorities had offered to fully support the Commission to ensure the crossborder merger takes place without any undue obstacles. Mr Di Pietro is reported to have said that any further authorisations concerning the merger would not be implemented without the Commission's prior agreement in line with Article 21 of the EC regulation on mergers, which gives it exclusive competence to deal with Community-scale mergers. The Commission had noted three weeks ago that reservation raised by Rome before it gave its clearance to the operation (EUROPE 9272) was of a kind that would be in breach of Article 21 (EUROPE 9289). It had therefore called on the Italian authorities to withdraw the binding opinions of the two ministries dated 4 August and the decision of 5 August from the body responsible for the awarding of motorway concessions in Italy (ANAS), as they blocked the merger de facto.
These measures have now been withdrawn but, although the competition chapter of the dossier has been placed on a backburner, it is not definitively closed, the Commissioner's spokesperson said on Wednesday. The Commission considers it legitimate that the government should verify whether the merger will entail a lack of investment for the maintenance and improvement of the motorway network, but it still hopes it will be able to assess the proportionality of any further measures. Now that the Italian minister has given it his assurance that any new authorisation measures will be forwarded to it, the Commission hopes it will be able to make such assessment, the spokesperson said. This development does not question the intentions of Charlie McCreevy to launch infringement proceedings in the near future on aspects of the dossier linked to the internal market (EUROPE 9301). The Commissioner has expressed concern about the existence of undue restrictions to the free movement of capital. (ab)