Alitalia could find itself back in state hands if the European Union creates problems over the government's efforts to save Italy's troubled carrier, premier-elect Silvio Berlusconi said on Tuesday.
In response to repeated doubts voiced by the EU over the legitimacy of an emergency loan to the carrier, Berlusconi said: ''We are trying to fix this situation through new shareholders, in respect of EU regulations. However, if they (the EU) keep hassling us we could decide to have the state just buy Alitalia, through the state railways company''.
''This is a threat, not a decision,'' he explained to the press on the sidelines of the seating of Italy's new parliament.
The European Commission later issued a statement to say it had no problem with Alitalia being re-nationalised, on the condition that the airline did not receive funds which violated EU laws on state subsidies.
CISL union chief Raffaele Bonanni later observed that Berlusconi was ''just blowing off steam in response to the hammering he's getting from the EU''.
''In any case, his hypothesis is not that off the wall,'' he added.
Bonanni also said that he was confident that once Berlusconi's new government was in place, potential buyers for the Treasury's 49.9% stake in Alitalia would step forward.
Berlusconi claimed during the recent election campaign that a group of Italian investors was ready to step in and buy Alitalia if Air France-KLM dropped its offer.
Although some leading industrialists have expressed a possible interest in joining a consortium to buy Alitalia, no one has made a real commitment.
Air France-KLM, which Alitalia choose last year as its preferred partner, withdrew its offer for the Italian carrier due to opposition to its business plan from airline unions and, later, Berlusconi.
The French-Dutch airline had from the start said that its offer was valid only if it had the support of unions and the government.
ON a request from Berlusconi, the outgoing government of Premier Romano Prodi last week approved a 300-million-euro emergency loan for Alitalia to keep it flying in the coming months.
It was agreed that the loan had to be paid back with interest at market rates by the end of December 2008, in accordance with EU regulations.
However, the EU almost immediately voiced its doubts over whether the loan constituted unlawful state aid and both low cost carrier Ryanair and British Airways threatened to take Italy to court.
Alitalia has debts in the neighborhood of 1.4 billion euros and continues to lose around a million euros a day. It currently has enough cash-on-hand to keep flying until the summer.
Earlier this month the International Air Transport Association (IATA) threatened to ground Alitalia even before then if it could not offer adequate guarantees regarding both its efficiency and the protection of passengers.
