Overtaken by events

28 November 2007 By George Hay Follow @gfhay

The Italian government behaved disgracefully last year when it blocked a merger between Autostrade and Spain’s Abertis by throwing the tariffs up in the air. After pressure from Brussels, the Prodi government has finally agreed new tariffs with Autostrade only for them to be damned by its own advisory body.

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Attempts by the Italian government and Autostrade to agree new motorway concession tariffs have been delayed after the government's own advisers questioned the new system.

Regulatory advisers to the CIPE, the parliamentary crossparty infrastructure committee, have released a 13page dossier suggesting that the infrastructure company's allowed returns would be unfair to consumers. Infrastructure minister Antonio Di Pietro has put the approval of the new tariffs on hold while the claims are addressed.

The advisers' views are nonbinding but come after Prodi wrote a letter at the end of last month to Charlie McCreevy, the European Union's internal markets commissioner, announcing that a deal had been struck.

The Italian government used the need for a new tariff law to block a proposed E25bn merger last December between Autostrade which has since been renamed Atlantia and the Spanish company, Abertis. Since then both sides have apparently cooled on the idea recently.

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