Italy has so far fended off a spanish bid to gain control of autostrade , the country 's main motorway company , but has been roundly criticised by brussels .
A stronger argument against the government is that ferrovial , a spanish construction company , already runs italian motorways , and the second-biggest toll-road operator ( after autostrade ) is gavio , an italian construction firm .
Autostrade argues that the clause of the privatisation law banning construction companies as shareholders has expired .
意大利高速公路公司称,这项私有化法律对建筑公司的约束条款已经过期了。
The italian government has changed the rules about motorway concessions to prevent a friendly merger between autostrade and abertis , so that deal is off .
The decision took autostrade and abertis by surprise : over the past weeks the firms felt confident that their plan to create the largest toll-road company in the world was on track .