CNE defends veto in parliament

Resumen de Prensa            Enervía, viernes, 16 mayo 2003

FUENTE: Platts


The president of Spanish energy regulator CNE, Pedro Meroņo,
defended the regulator's veto of the takeover of Iberdrola by Gas
Natural in parliament on Tuesday. Meroņo said the takeover could
have caused tariffs for endusers to rise, as a merged company
might have struggled to cover its costs with the existing tariffs
established and capped by the government. He pointed out that
buying out Iberdrola shareholders would generate debt of around
Eur6-bil ($6.84-bil), which could then not be destined for key
investments. Meroņo's comments add to the reasoning given by
the regulator in its detailed report of its decision, which
expressed concerns that allowing a merger with conditions could
be futile, as the merged company could ignore some of these.
This would mean that the regulator would be powerless to
intervene because the merger, once carried out would be
"practically irreversible."
Political row refuses to die down
The regulator's decision continued to generate a political stir, as
Catalonian party CiU criticized the decision as "unjust arbitrary
and inadmissible." According to local press, CiU was anxious to
see the interests of Barcelona-based Gas Natural safeguarded,
and has repeatedly said the veto to the operation was more
politically than economically motivated. The outgoing president of
the Catalonian government, Jordi Pujol, told local radio that Spain
was returning to the days of concentrating political economic and
cultural power in Madrid leaving the rest of Spain and Catalonia
in a very secondary role. Meroņo denied in Parliament that the
CNE has been in any way influenced by the government in its
veto.