ArcelorMittal on Tuesday filed
suit to get out of their contract to take over the former ILVA
steel works including its Taranto plant, the biggest in Europe -
as Premier Giuseppe Conte asked ministers to brainstorm ways of
converting the controversial plant.
The suit arrived on the table of the president of the Milan
court, Roberto Bichi, who will now assign it to one of two
sections specialised in business cases, judicial sources said.
Bichi said he would assign the case Wednesday.
The former ILVA group's three extraordinary commissioners say
in an appeal to be filed later this week that the juridical
conditions do not exist for the Franco-Indian steel giant, the
world's largest, to pull out of the takeover deal.
ArcelorMittal has said it needs to pull out citing the
lifting of a 'penal shield' protecting a cleanup of the highly
polluting Taranto works and the necessity of shedding 5,000
workers across the group, which employs over 8,000 people at
Taranto and some 3,000 more at Genoa and Novi Ligure.
The government is split on restoring the shield with many in
the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S), led by Foreign
Minister Luigi Di Maio, against providing protection for a plant
whose pollution levels have been linked to high local cancer
rates in and around Taranto.
But Premier Conte and the M5S's ruling partner, the
centre-left Democratic Party (PD), are firmly in favour of
bringing the shield back, provided ArcelorMittal agree to stay
on.
All parties in government, including ex-premier and former PD
leader Matteo Renzi's new centrist Italia Viva (IV) party, are
against the job cuts.
There has been talk of the former ILVA group, which was once
under state control before passing to the Riva group, being
re-nationalised.
But Economy Minister Roberto Gualtieri's squashed such talk
Monday, saying "nationalisation is not on the cards.
"It is an illusion".
However, he did say a public partner, such as government bank
CDP, was a "possibility".
Gualtieri said Tuesday that "a market solution should be
found" and that "ArcelorMittal's accords must be respected.
"ILVA must continue to produce steel," he said, coming out
against converting the plant to other, cleaner uses.
Confindustria industrial employers group chief Vincenzo
Boccia said Tuesday "we don't like nationalisations".
He also stressed that "Italy cannot do without ILVA".
Any solution will have to continue to strike a balance
between protecting the health of Tarantans and saving jobs at
the sprawling plant, one of the biggest in Europe.
ArcelorMittal may be asked to trim job cuts by a few thousand
units, sources said Tuesday, with the government recognising
that steel production has dropped.
Premier Conte said in an interview published Tuesday in
Italian daily La Repubblica that he will ask ministers to
brainstorm solutions to convert the Taranto plant if no plan for
its survival as a steelworks succeed.
Conte said the government will soon have another meeting with
ArcelorMittal executives and announced a "legal battle"
involving a preventative procedure with the Court of Milan "to
obtain a judicial check on the government's and A.Mittal's
arguments and motives within 7 to 10 days".
ArcelorMittal stopped offloading raw materials for its
Taranto steelworks some days ago, unions said Monday.
The decision is linked to the Franco-Indian group's plan to
stop one of its production lines, the unions said.
CEO Lucia Morselli last week said the plant would gradually
shut down as ArcelorMittal implemented its plan to pull out of
the deal to take over the works and the rest of the Italian
steel group.
UILM union leader Rocco Palombella said Tuesday that "Taranto
is closing down".
Health Minister Roberto Speranza may soon propose boosting
health monitoring in Taranto, sources said Tuesday.
Foreign Minister Di Maio, the M5S leader, said "if you cause
an environmental disaster, you pay for it", reiterating
opposition to a renewed penal shield.
He said an amendment from IV or the PD reintroducing the
penal shield "would be a huge problem" for the ruling majority.
He added: "if we start with tricks, Italia Viva is the one
that more to lose".
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © Copyright ANSA
