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The steel giant announced it was abandoning the steel plant located in Taranto in Puglia, considering no longer benefit from legal protection against possible criminal proceedings related to pollution of the site.
With our correspondent in Rome, Anne Le Nir
The Ilva, the largest European steel plant, was bought by ArcelorMittal at the end of 2018. The Franco-Indian group had committed to invest to improve productivity and make the site less polluting, but had made a condition: it should not pay for the mistakes of the past.
According to the prosecutor's office in Taranto, between 2004 and 2010, 7,500 deaths were caused by diseases attributable to toxic emissions from blast furnaces. Rome had therefore planned a sort of "criminal shield" to protect ArcelorMittal. This legal protection was removed by Parliament at the end of October, hence the withdrawal of the multinational. A withdrawal that could lead to the loss of 10,700 jobs in an area already severely affected by unemployment.
Difficult negotiations
The head of government, Giuseppe Conte , will meet the leaders of ArcelorMittal on Wednesday to try to reach an agreement. But the negotiations are difficult, because against the backdrop, Arcelor Mittal can not cope with the crisis in the steel industry.
The Democratic Party, one of the two formations of the ruling coalition in Italy, will in any case propose to give ArcelorMittal legal protection against the prosecution that could be initiated. " The one who pollutes pays but the one who has to implement an environmental protection plan can not assume criminal responsibility for previous acts that are not his own. We will propose parliamentary initiatives in this direction, "said Nicola Zingaretti, national secretary of the DP, in a statement.