Press Release: Mergers: Commission declares part of conditions imposed by Spain on Enel and Acciona to acquire Endesa incompatible with EU law and requires their withdrawal

The European Commission has decided that Spain has violated Article 21 of the EU Merger Regulation in that certain conditions imposed on Enel and Acciona for their acquisition of Endesa are incompatible with EC law and has requested their withdrawal by 10 January 2008. In particular the incompatible conditions concern: a) the obligation to maintain Endesa as an independent company, including its brand, and its decision-making centre in Spain, b) a limitation in Endesa's debt service ratio, c) a limitation with respect to Endesa's dividends distribution policy, d) the obligation for certain of Endesa's generation assets to purchase certain amounts of national coal and e) the obligation to keep the assets of the insular and non-mainland electricity systems within the Endesa Group. These conditions were imposed by the National Energy Commission ('CNE') in its decision of 4 July 2007 and partially modified by the Minister of Industry on 19 October 2007.