EDF share in Edison set for competition probe: minister

0 Comments | AFP, August, 2006

PARIS (AFP) — Italian authorities are to probe the role of French state-controlled electricity giant EDF in the Italian group Edison to see if it distorts competition, the country's economic development minister has said.

Pierluigi Bersani told the French Les Echos newspaper that the probe would cover EDF's position in Edison and in a subsidiary of Edison, Edipower.

He said: "The enquiry will cover both the shareholders in Edipower and the joint control of Edison by EDF and AEM."

AEM is a company based in Milan which supplies electricity and gas.

The minister's comments are set against a long-running objection by Italian authorities at incursions by EDF, a French state-controlled body, into the Italian energy market.

EDF has benefited in...