The European Parliament passed a resolution condemning Argentina’s nationalisation of YPF and called for a partial suspension of tariffs that benefit exports from the South American country to the EU.
The EU assembly branded the takeover of Repsol’s controlling stake “depolorable” and “an attack on business” and urged the “use of all diplomatic avenues available to solve the situation with Argentine counterparts”.
The resolution followed calls by Repsol last night to fight its corner. “I think that the European authorities, not just the Spanish Government, should try to force Argentina to come back to the right road,” Antonio Brufau, chief executive of Repsol said in a television interview.
“There are a lot of measures that they can take in order to force Argentina to be a normal country,” he insisted.
Buenos Aires, however, pressed ahead with the nationalisation of the oil company, expected to be rubberstamped by a Senate vote next week, despite mounting international condemnation.
Argentina confirmed it would also seize YPF Gas, a local liquified petroleum gas distribution company. “We supposed it was a unit of YPF, but it isn’t, it’s a separate company,” Senator Anibal Fernandez said on Wednesday night.
The World Bank’s outgoing President, Robert Zoellick, said yesterday that Buenos Aires’ decision to expropriate 51pc of YPF was a “mistake” and the “wrong thing to do”, while Spain hailed US support in opposing the Argentine move.
Telegraph has the full article
