Press Release: Free movement of capital: Commission calls on Italy to apply Court of Justice ruling on the law on investment in energy companies

The European Commission on 4 April 2006 decided to ask Italy formally to modify its legislation in order to comply with the Court of Justice ruling of 2 June 2005 on the law on investment in energy companies. The Court found that the automatic suspension of voting rights for shareholdings in excess of 2% in Italian electricity and gas companies, where such holdings are acquired by public companies not quoted on the stock exchange and holding a dominant position in their own domestic markets, was in breach of the EC Treaty rules on the free movement of capital (Article 56).