José Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission needs to give some clarification about who is running European industrial and competition policy, if he wants to have any credibility left (¨Autostrade and Abertis abandon merger¨ December 13 2006).
After months of preparing his reforms of the European electricity sector, one call to attention from France and Germany about not accepting these, was sufficient to send him and his team back to the drawing board.
Now the Italian government has blatantly ignored the Commission by preventing the merger of Autostrade, the Italian toll road and restaurant group, with Abertis, the Spanish company, against the wishes of both managements and shareholder groups.
It looks like Europe is OK for everyone, as long as it doesn´t get in the way of nationalistic requirements. To paraphrase Oscar Wilde: When you cave in once, it can be considered a misfortune, caving in twice....¨
It is clear that the energy companies most likely to be affected by the proposals are Gaz de France, Electricité de France, E.ON and RWE, all French and German companies, or is that just a coincidence?
Mr. Barroso is advised to regain some credibility by at least showing some backbone when it isn´t one of the big two. The big guys usually get their way anyway.
Onésimo Alvarez-Moro
See article:
Autostrade and Abertis yesterday scrapped their €25bn ($33bn) cross-border infrastructure mer-ger, bowing to what they said were insurmountable obstacles placed in the way of the deal by the Italian government.
Autostrade, which collects tolls on the majority of Italy's motorways, first announced its deal with Spain's Abertis in April. The two said they wanted to build a company better able to compete for international contracts. But the merger has been mired in legal disputes with regulators and the government of Romano Prodi.
See full Article (paid subscription required).
Posts
