Awwal 13, 1432 H/Feb 16, 2011, SPA -- The European Union's executive on Wednesday decided to take Greece to court over limitations on investments into companies deemed "strategic", saying they broke fair business rules. The European Commission is tasked with drafting EU laws and making sure that member states obey them. It is the second time within three weeks that the commission has sued Greece over its shortcomings. The Brussels-based body "has decided to refer Greece to the EU Court of Justice (ECJ) for maintaining investment restrictions, in breach of EU rules, on the free movement of capital," dpa cited a statement issued in Brussels as reading. Greek law says that investors cannot buy more than 20 per cent of the shares of "strategic" companies and limits the amount of influence they have on decision-making. The logic of the legislation is to make sure that the government keeps control of businesses of national importance. But the commission holds that the effect is to limit legitimate business, since the concept of "strategic" is not clearly defined. "Since there are no clearly defined criteria for how to apply the schemes or to which companies they apply, the law leads to a great deal of legal uncertainty and too much discretionary power for the Greek authorities," the statement read. If the ECJ finds against the Greek government, it could order Athens to scrap the laws and could impose fines if this is not done.
