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04/11
Italy Committee to Consider Libyan Asset Freeze, People Say
By Lorenzo Totaro and Flavia Rotondi
(See EXTRA <GO> for more on the Middle East unrest.)
March 5 (Bloomberg) — Authorities in Italy, Libya’s main trading partner, will meet today to consider freezing assets linked to Muammar Qaddafi and his family, two people familiar with the matter said.
The Financial Security Committee, chaired by Treasury Director General Vittorio Grilli and including representatives of the government, the central bank, regulators and intelligence services, will meet in Rome, they said, declining to be named in line with policy. The meeting precedes a formal decision to freeze assets tied to Qaddafi, they added.
The European Union agreed on Feb. 28 to implement a resolution by the United Nations on Libya, imposing an arms embargo and freezing the assets of Qaddafi and close associates. The EU may widen sanctions to include more individuals as well as possibly organizations, an EU official in Brussels said today on condition of anonymity. While the governments of Spain, Austria and Germany have announced measures to implement the EU decision, Italy has so far stopped short of freezing assets.
Italy “is applying exactly what was agreed on internationally,” Finance Minister Giulio Tremonti told reporters in Istanbul yesterday, according to Ansa newswire. “We have applied the UN resolution and in Europe we are discussing” widening the sanctions. A Finance Ministry spokeswoman, contacted by Bloomberg News, wasn’t immediately able to confirm the meeting.
The risk for Italy “is that Libya will react and might even re-nationalize assets we own there,” Giuseppe Di Taranto, an economics professor at Rome’s Luiss University, said in an interview with Bloomberg Television.
Eni’s Role
Eni SpA, Italy’s biggest oil company, has been present in Libya for half a century, leaving Italy reliant on the country for a quarter of its crude oil. Libya has invested in Italian companies including Fiat SpA, UniCredit SpA, Finmeccanica SpA and Juventus Football Club SpA, which owns Italy’s most successful soccer team.
The Bank of Italy this week asked lenders to report suspicious transactions involving Libyan holdings. In a March 1 note, the Rome-based central bank cited the UN resolution and said reporting of such transactions may allow its financial intelligence unit to “suspend” the operations.
Interior Minister Roberto Maroni told a parliamentary committee on March 2 that Italian market regulator Consob should have a say on whether the country blocks the stakes of Italian companies belonging to Libyans. Consob and the Treasury said on that day that the issue was likely to be discussed at the next meeting of the Financial Security Committee.
–With assistance by Elisa Martinuzzi in Milan and Alessandra Migliaccio in Rome. Editors: Jeffrey Donovan, Eddie Buckle
To contact the reporter on this story: Lorenzo Totaro in Rome at ltotaro@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Craig Stirling at cstirling1@bloomberg.net