Transport minister says Italy will answer EU on Alitalia

(ANSA) – Rome, October 18 – Italy’s Transport Minister Maurizio Lupi said Rome was working on preparing an answer to the European Commission’s request for more information on a recently-approved Alitalia salvage package, specifically in relation to a controversial injection of 75 million euros from Italy’s State-owned postal company.

“We are working on answering the European Union, though we don’t have to justify ourselves,” said Lupo. “We will present them with all the requested documentation in order to permit them to verify that it is not State aid but an important industrial project”. The EC earlier this week expressed concern it had not been given advance notice of the measures that were recently approved for the troubled airline by its largest shareholders in a bid to keep it aloft, in order to confirm these were compatible with EU law.

A spokesman for Competition Commissioner Joaqu