Ex Ilva: Arcelor Mittal leaves Taranto, Conte convenes the top management of the company

• Arcelor Mittal, Patuanelli: guaranteeing production continuity. I will meet the company
• ArcelorMittal, the Mise denies possible restoration of immunity
• ArcelorMittal: "The impression is that you work against the company". Di Maio: "Nobody wants to close it"
• Ex Ilva, Di Maio: "If it comes out with common sense, I don't accept blackmail from ArcelorMittal"

Share

At the end of a hectic day, begun with the cold shower of the announcement of the retreat by ArcelorMittal's former Ilva of Taranto, the premier Giuseppe Conte convenes the top management of the company. The meeting will be tomorrow.

The news comes after the extraordinary ministerial summit convened in the afternoon, after the vis-a-vis between Conte and the Minister of Economic Development, Stefano Patuanelli, and shortly before the summit of ministers with the Prime Minister begins at Palazzo Chigi.

"The government will not allow the closure of ILVA," say sources of the Mise attending the afternoon summit, in which, in addition to Patuanelli, also Provenzano, Speranza, Catalfo, Costa and representatives of the Ministry of Economy took part. "There are no legal requirements for the termination of the contract. We will immediately summon Mittal".

At the heart of the matter is, in particular, the criminal shield.

Arcelor Mittal: we leave Taranto
The steel giant Arcelor Mittal announced the withdrawal from the former Ilva of Taranto. With a note, the company reported having sent Ilva Extraordinary Commissioners "a notice of withdrawal from the contract or termination thereof" regarding the rental and subsequent conditional purchase of Ilva's business branches and some of its subsidiaries. The group recalls that the contract provides that, in the event that a new legislative provision affects the Taranto plant environmentally in such a way as to render its management or the implementation of the business plan impossible, the Company has the contractual right to withdraw from the same Contract.

According to the contents of the agreement of October 31, 2018, Arcelor Mittal "asked the Extraordinary Commissioners to take responsibility for Ilva's activities and the employees within 30 days of receiving the communication" of ArcelorMittal's intention to leave Ilva, it is read in a press release from the group.

Arcelor Mittal focuses on the provision by which, from November 3, 2019, "the Italian Parliament has eliminated the legal protection necessary for the Company to implement its environmental plan without the risk of criminal responsibility, thus justifying the communication of withdrawal". In addition "the provisions issued by the Taranto Criminal Court oblige the Ilva Extraordinary Commissioners to complete certain prescriptions by December 13, 2019. Such prescriptions should reasonably and prudently be applied also to two other blast furnaces at the Taranto plant. Turning it off would make it impossible for the Company will implement its industrial plan, manage the Taranto plant and, in general, execute the Contract ", the note states.

For Morselli, the activity suspension plan will be needed
"It will be necessary to implement an orderly suspension of all productive activities starting from the hot area of ​​the Taranto plant, which is the most exposed to the risks deriving from the absence of legal protection". The ad and president of A.Mittal Italia Lucia Morselli wrote to the employees. "The activities of all the other departments and operating areas will also be progressively suspended", with the aim "of keeping all the plants in efficiency and ready for their productive restart".

The Federacciai alarm: enormous consequences on the supply chain
"The consequences for the supply chain would be enormous, exposing everyone more and more to the dynamics of imports, but they would also be heavy for the Italian iron and steel industry as a whole, which is, let's remember, the second in Europe and the tenth in the world" states the president of Federacciai , Alessandro Banzato. "What we feared unfortunately happened: changing the rules of the game in the running could make the bank jump".

"My hope, therefore, is that we can quickly reopen the confrontation and that this could lead to a positive solution that has as its shared objective the maintenance of steel production in Taranto", underlines Banzato. "Everyone now is rightly agitated by the social problem that may arise and many forget the root of the question, the one without which there is no work, or the enormous industrial problem that would follow from the closure of Taranto".

Salvini: "Whoever removed the penal shield goes to Taranto"
On the penal shield for Arcelor Mittal "the suppressive amendment is signed by M5S, voted by Pd Iv and Leu, who voted should have the courage to go to Taranto tonight to explain it" Matteo Salvini thunders at the Senate press conference, speaking of government of incapable.

"The solution was the criminal shield, as issued by our Council of Ministers and arrived in Parliament. If one (the company, ed) puts four billion to repair the damage that comes from the past, at the very least it asks you to be protected until you he has recovered the damage of the past. "I understand, you deepen it, that for days the leaders of Arcelor Mittal are not signing anything anymore. Clients have been told that they no longer need supplies. It was not a sudden thing - he concludes -. If then at the Mise they think of solving all with the State Attorney, go ahead ... "

"The government is reporting to the Houses tomorrow"
"Tomorrow at the opening of the works both in the House and in the Senate, we will politely ask that someone from the government comes to report on Ilva", adds the leader of the League, who had previously proposed actions to block parliamentary work - "according to the regulations" - in case of failure to reply.

Marcucci (Pd): shield taken by Salvini
"Salvini, due to rallies, loses his memory. It was his government, in the Growth decree, to remove the penal shield on the former Ilva," said the president of the senators of the Democratic Party, Andrea Marcucci. "In such a difficult context as today, all the majority and minority parliamentary groups should strongly ask the government and Mittal not to put Taranto on its knees and to respect the commitments made. The PD will do it, we give a for once the right signal together ", he adds.

Renzi: "Unacceptable decision, the Government eliminates the own goal on immunity"
"Mittal's decision to disengage from Taranto is unacceptable. The Government must immediately remove from property any alibis by eliminating the own goals like the one on immunity wanted by the old government and on which we had warned Minister Patuanelli", Matteo Renzi writes, in a post on facebook.

"For those who make a petty and mediocre controversy in these hours: the penal shield has been canceled by the Lega-Cinque Stelle executive - the leader of the IV specifies." But we want solutions, not scapegoats. Regardless of the alibis, Taranto needs a future and the future also comes from steel. I have signed numerous decrees to keep Ilva open, I have taken assassinations from some former party comrades, I have suffered very heavy complaints. I would do it all again. Because today the recovery plan is there. And Taranto cannot do without Ilva. Immunity is an alibi that must be removed from the table immediately. Everyone, Government and property, must keep commitments ".

Renzi concludes: "The citizens of Taranto did it. The Ilva workers did it. Now it's up to the Government and Mittal: don't mess with the work of the people".

Pd: Conte convene the property
"The government immediately convenes a table with ArcelorMittal. The situation is serious, we cannot accept that the steel supply chain is being questioned and with it more than 10 thousand jobs". Pd groups say in the Region, Municipality and Province. "It was a mistake to offer ArcelorMittal the pretext to terminate the contract by removing the criminal shield, when the real problem is the maintenance of the company's business plan, due to the decline in production and the negative international economic situation. to make an extraordinary effort to guarantee the continuity of production sites and employment levels. Italy cannot get out of the steel supply chain "says the Democratic Party.

Tajani (FI): "The withdrawal of Arcelor Mittal is a blow, Forza Italia will bring the case to Brussels"
"The withdrawal of Arcelor Mittal in the final acquisition of Ilva is a blow to the Italian steel industry. Time has been lost and the incapacity in addition to the political indecision of the two Conte governments have created the conditions for a serious failure. Thousands of jobs at risk and billions of € of GDP that go up in smoke The government, especially with the M5s that is at the helm of the Mise, has done nothing but disregard the agreements with Arcelor Mittal useful for the revival of the former Ilva Removing the penal shield necessary to carry out the environmental reclamation of the area was a real suicide and the consequences will be paid by the workers and citizens of Taranto.Necessary choices are necessary to safeguard employment, especially in Southern Italy, useful measures to guarantee Italy the position of second European manufacturing country.There is, in short, a need for a true industrial policy capable of reviving the economy.This government is doing the exact opposite . Forza Italia will bring the case to Brussels to the Parliament and the European Commission ". Antonio Tajani, vice president of Forza Italia and president of the constitutional affairs committee of the European Parliament, writes this on Facebook.

Melons: if the State does not keep commitments no one invests
"I am very worried. I think we need to pay close attention to a state that does not keep its commitments. If the Italian state had committed itself to things like the criminal shield, I think that a state that wants to maintain investments must also keep its commitments, otherwise we risk not investing anyone ". Thus the leader of FdI Giorgia Meloni. "Then the important issue on the Ilva - he adds - is to understand what the future should be in the coming decades, which has not yet been addressed".

Cgil, everybody's commitment is needed to avoid disaster
"Taranto and Italy cannot pay the price of an endless dispute between Arcelor Mittal and the government. Never as in this case the future depends on the present, we need everyone's commitment to avoid a disaster: the company will firm and the Government keeps faith with the commitments made and re-establishes the conditions of the agreement ". Thus in a note the Confederal secretary of the CGIL, Emilio Miceli. "In no area of ​​the South - continues the union leader - which has experienced great industrial disposals, there has never been a trace of industrial, urban and environmental development. From Crotone to Termini Imerese, the South has known only endurance and assistance, never development and modernization "

Bentivogli (Fim): disengagement is a social bomb
"We learn the news of Arcelor Mittal's willingness to communicate to the commissioners the will to withdraw from the contract. It means that starting today the 25 days for which former Ilva workers and plants will return to the Extraordinary Administration. Among the main reasons, the save mess - companies on the penal shield. A masterpiece of incompetence and political fear: do not defuse the environmental bomb and join the social bomb ". This was stated by FIM CISL national secretary Marco Bentivogli.

Barbagallo, no to industrial catastrophe
"Arcelor Mittal's decision foreshadows an industrial catastrophe for our country: without the factories involved, the future of our economy becomes more uncertain. This disengagement, whose origins are to be thoroughly examined, is unacceptable, because it is the prelude to a occupational, social and environmental drama that must absolutely be avoided ". This was declared by the general secretary of the UIL, Carmelo Barbagallo. "The government must intervene: we will ask it with determination to Prime Minister Conte, already at this evening's meeting at Palazzo Chigi".