Press Release: Mergers: Commission sends new preliminary assessment to Italy on measures blocking Abertis-Autostrade merger

The European Commission has come to the preliminary conclusion that Italy has violated Article 21 of the EU Merger Regulation due to the lack of authorisation for the transfer of the motorway concession within the new entity resulting from the planned merger between Abertis and Autostrade. This is a merger of a European dimension falling within the exclusive competence of the Commission under the EU Merger Regulation. In particular, the Commission has serious doubts about the compatibility with Article 21 of the Italian authorities' failure to fix in advance and in a sufficiently clear manner the claimed public interest criteria for the conduct of the authorisation procedure and the failure to adopt an authorisation decision for the transfer of the concession. This lack of authorisation was one of the reasons cited by Abertis and Autostrade for abandoning the planned merger, which was approved without conditions by the Commission on 22 September 2006 (see IP/06/1244). In October 2006, the Commission had already expressed its doubts with regard to previous decisions refusing the transfer of the concession (see IP/06/1418), but these decisions were subsequently withdrawn (see MEMO/06/414). The Italian authorities have 15 working days to express their views on the Commission’s preliminary assessment.