Italy state lawyers warn government of risks in Atlantia dispute - source
By Giuseppe Fonte
ROME (Reuters) - Italy's attorney general has warned the prime minister's office that stripping infrastructure group Atlantia of its lucrative motorway concession could be overturned by the EU'S Court of Justice, a government source told Reuters on Friday.
The coalition has threatened to revoke the licence of Atlantia's motorway unit Autostrade per l'Italia following a bridge collapse which killed 43 people in the northern city of Genoa in 2018.
After months of political and legal wrangling which has fuelled tensions among the ruling parties, the government has been awaiting the legal opinion before taking a final decision on the issue.
Atlantia has always denied wrongdoing in the Genoa disaster and said it would challenge any revocation in court, raising the risk of multi-billion euro compensation payment by the government.
With a public debt of 135% of gross domestic product, proportionally the highest in the euro zone after Greece, Italy is wary of putting further pressure on its strained public finances.
The government has paved the way for a revocation by presenting legislation aimed at making it easier and less costly under Italian law.
The new rules are due to be approved by parliament this month. In the meantime Atlantia and the government have made preliminary contact but there has been no apparent progress towards a settlement.
Despite the new rules, "state lawyers stated that any revocation would be unlikely to stand up in the European Court of Justice," said the source, who asked not to be named because of the sensitivity of the matter.
The legal opinion was first reported by Italian business daily Il Sole 24 Ore on Friday.
On Thursday Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte urged Atlantia, which is owned by the Benetton family famous for its clothing label, to make a settlement proposal before the government decides on revocation.
In an interview with Corriere della Sera daily on Friday, Atlantia Chief Executive Carlo Bertazzo said a settlement offer had already been sent to the government, but the source told Reuters there was "not yet a convincing proposal from Atlantia."
The prime minister's office was not available to comment.
Within the ruling coalition the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement has led calls for the licence to be revoked, but it has so far not found the necessary backing from its allies.
The centre-left Democratic Party and the small, centrist Italia Viva party headed by former prime minister Matteo Renzi want to pressure Atlantia to accept contract changes and heavy penalties, rather than strip it of its licence.
(Reporting by Giuseppe Fonte; Editing by Gavin Jones and David Holmes)
