Italian Industry Minister Claudio Scajola said Friday the country needs to discuss with other European Union member states the veto powers "problems" in key companies after the top E.U. court ruled against it.
The European Court of Justice has condemned Italy for retaining veto powers, known as golden shares, in key companies Eni SpA (E.MI), Telecom Italia SpA (TI), Enel SpA (ENEL.MI) and Finmeccanica SpA (FNC.MI).
"It's one of the problems that we must confront" when dealing with our partners so that Italy isn't discriminated against, said Scajola at a conference in Rome.
"We must see if the same rules in Europe are applied to all countries," he added, without elaborating.
The European Court of Justice's ruling against the Italian government for retaining certain special powers within former state-owned companies doesn't affect the companies' ratings, said Fitch Ratings Friday.
The special powers the Italian government retained include the possibility to opposing investors buying equity stakes of more than 5% of voting capital, opposing shareholder pacts or agreements regarding at least 5% of voting capital and veto powers on decisions to wind up the company, mergers, breakups and changes of the by-laws, said Fitch.