Italy still risks disciplinary action by the European Commission for allegedly blocking a cross-border motorways merger even though Spanish operator Abertis and Italy's Autostrade have shelved the deal, the European Union executive said on Thursday.
A spokesman for Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes said that "whether or not the operation goes through has little to do with whether or not a member state may have violated regulations regarding cross-border mergers".
On January 31, the EC issued a 'preliminary conclusion' stating that Italy appeared to have violated EU regulations on cross-border mergers regarding the failed 25-billion-euro motorways.
The EC said Italy had set unjustified conditions for the transfer of a motorways concession from Autostrade to a new entity which would have been created by the merger of the two toll road operators.
According to the EC, "the national authorization process should not be used to obtain concessions regarding past regulatory failures or to solve possible future problems arising from the provisions of an existing concession".
The EC also said that Italy had not clearly established the criteria used to claim public interest in conditioning the authorisations for transferring a concession.
Italy has until February 22 to respond to the preliminary assessment after which the EC can decide to take action or shelve the matter.
Public Works Minister Antonio Di Pietro said after the action that he would respond but the fact the merger fell through meant that "whatever (EC) decision is made will be filed in historical archives".
Abertis and Autostrade called off their merger plans more than two weeks before the EC issued its position.
In a related development, Abertis CEO Josep Martinez Vila told the Bloomberg news agency on Wednesday that the Spanish motorways operator still expected to merge with Autostrade.
"We want this to go through and we should complete the merger by the end of the year. The decisions by the European Union should help the Italians to understand the logic of the operation," Martinez Vila said.
A merger between the Spanish and Italian operators would create the world's biggest motorways company, operating in 16 countries with a road network of over 6,700 kilometers.
