SPAIN: Italian and Spanish premiers discuss Abertis' Autostrade bid

Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi on Monday (October 16, 2006) said he had no objection to merger plans between Spanish company Abertis' and Italian highway operator Autostrade but had problems with highway concessions involved in the deal. After meeting with his Spanish counterpart, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, in Madrid, Prodi said he would not meet Abertis executives during his trip. Abertis proposed taking over Autostrade in April, but the the Italian government has opposed the deal. It believes a construction company holding a stake in a highway operator would pose a conflict of interest and clashes with Italian rules. "This isn't an Italian-Spanish problem, it's an Italian-Italian problem, and in the future we're going to move forward on these issues," Prodi told a joint news conference. Both Prodi and Zapatero called for a Europe-wide effort to combat rising illegal immigration and called for the question to be on the agenda of a 20 October informal EU summit in Lahti, Finland. "Italy and Spain are going to intensify their efforts to make immigration a European issue because this is a matter that affects the economic relationship between two continents: Europe and Africa," Zapatero said. Prodi was expected to address the New Economy Forum in Madrid on Monday afternoon.

ITN Source | October 17, 2006

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