Italy will scrap a 5 percent limit on construction firms' voting rights in highway operators after the EU signalled such a ceiling would breach EU rules, Italy's minister for EU affairs said on Saturday.
The issue of how much sway building firms can hold in companies running highways is at the heart of Rome's opposition to a proposed merger between Autostrade, Italy's biggest toll-road operator, and Spanish peer Abertis.
Emma Bonino, Italy's minister for EU affairs, said a meeting in Brussels on Friday had concluded that the 5 percent limit was against EU rules. She told reporters on the sidelines of a meeting in Capri that the Italian government would send an amended version of its decree, scrapping the limit, to EU authorities by next Tuesday.
The Italian government had included the ceiling in a decree attached to the 2007 budget approved at the end of September, but it was not clear whether removing it meant it would lift its objections to the deal between Autostrade and Abertis.
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