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On Friday, Brussels was set to issue a “letter of notice” to Italy, marking the formal start of an infringement procedure under which Rome will be accused of possible breaches of EU law...
Brussels is to issue a formal warning to Rome over concerns that Italy's sweeping "golden power" rules could breach EU law. The European Commission has been critical of Italy's use of the golden power rules, which were originally introduced to control foreign purchases of Italian strategic assets and to give Rome the right to impose requirements on transactions deemed to involve national security.
On Friday, Brussels was set to issue a "letter of notice" to Italy, which marks the formal start of an infringement procedure under which Rome will be accused of possible breaches of EU law, European officials said.
Through such a letter, Brussels requests information from Italy, after which Rome must send a detailed response.
The golden power rules, which give Rome the right to potentially block foreign purchases of Italian assets, were first introduced in 2012 and applied only to companies in critical sectors such as defense, energy, transport and communications.
But Italy then expanded the sectors that fell within the scope of the rules, including banking, healthcare and water.
The government of Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni used the golden rule for the first time in May to set conditions for a proposed domestic deal: UniCredit's takeover bid for smaller rival Banco BPM.
Analysts said the rules, originally designed as a safeguard against a sharp influx of Chinese investment into Italy, had morphed into a government tool for managing important national assets.
The Italian government's intervention in UniCredit's bid for Banco BPM came amid efforts by the European Commission to encourage consolidation of the EU banking industry in a bid to boost the bloc's ailing economy.
Brussels is increasingly frustrated with EU member states' hostile reactions to consolidation, as it sees a network of fewer, larger banks as essential to creating globally competitive financial services companies that can take on American rivals.
In July, the commission sent a private letter to the Italian government saying that Brussels had reached a preliminary conclusion that Rome had violated EU merger law through the use of golden power rules in UniCredit's bid for Banco BPM.
UniCredit eventually withdrew its bid for Banco BPM after the government imposed several conditions on the proposed deal. The official warning from the commission comes amid ongoing discussions with Rome in an attempt by Brussels to persuade Italy to change its gold-power rules./ Adapted from “Pamphlet” by “Financial Times”
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