The agony of the former Ilva between the Tar sentence and the trial on the "Riva negotiation with politics"

• Arcelor Mittal, Tar dismisses appeal on hot area closure

• ArcelorMittal.

  Unions: "Business meeting went wrong", 24-hour strike

• A.Mittal.

  Arcuri: we want to take care of all the factories that are in Italy

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February 16, 2021

"Ilva, bypassing the administrative bodies, aimed at a fruitful confrontation with the political bodies".

The prosecutor Remo Epifani said this this morning while continuing the indictment at the trial in the Court of Assizes, in Taranto, for the environmental disaster accused, together with other serious crimes, against Ilva conducted by the Riva.

For the prosecutor, Ilva's operating model for obtaining the release of the authorizations it needed for the operational operation of the factory, especially those of an environmental nature, was to discuss it directly with politicians and not with technicians and figures administrative authorities of the competent bodies.

And in this scheme, the prosecutor Epifani has placed the former governor of the Puglia Region, Nichi Vendola, the former president of the Province of Taranto, Gianni Florido, and the former Councilor for the Environment of the Province, Michele Conserva, 3 of the 47 defendants of the 'Environment Cleared' trial.

Referring to the position of 2 other defendants in the trial, the prosecutor recalled that "in March 2010 Girolamo Archina 'told Fabio Riva that' we need to get busy on the political side I was telling you because 'I have answers that are not interested'. Archina '- added the prosecutor with regard to the aspect relating to the authorizations for the Ilva landfills - he regularly attended the offices of the Province ".

Thus, the prosecutor said again, "measures adopted in the absence of legal conditions", but also "threats of uprisings from office" towards the officials and managers of the Province of Taranto and "invitation to resign" .

This is because, according to the prosecutor, officials and managers did not want to do what the provincial administrators asked because there were no regulatory conditions.

The prosecutor spoke of "the clear aim of making the company achieve" what he had asked for.

"In the Province of Taranto - the prosecutor pointed out -, Ilva acted through the figure of Archinà, a leading figure in this process", called upon to follow "the business, even illegal of the company".

Regarding the role of Archinà, an employee of the steel company, which the Riva owners, Ilva owners, used for their relations with politics and administrators, the prosecutor said that "he had a sophisticated strategy also aimed at influencing the media when it's about achieving a corporate interest. "

"There are many episodes that involve him and that make him in dominus of Ilva's illicit plots, receiving explicit parcel from his employer - said Buccoliero -. Ilva cannot do without Archinà".

In the morning, Buccoliero closed his indictment which had begun yesterday afternoon, and, after a brief interruption, the hearing resumed with the intervention of the prosecutor Giovanna Cannarile.

After her, one last pm still has to speak, Raffaele Graziano.

The series, for the public prosecution, was opened by the prosecutor Mariano Buccoliero who is the one who spoke most of all: 7 hearings spread over 3 weeks starting from 1 February.

Tomorrow the prosecution will close the indictment and formulate the requests to the Court of Assizes presided over by Stefania D'Errico, on the sidelines of Fulvia Misserini.

Judgment Tar, lawyers: risk of collapse of furnaces and destruction of assets

The forced shutdown of the plants, established by the TAR of Lecce "without the availability of a nitrogen and methane mixing station, would not allow the furnaces to remain heated and would result in their collapse and then the destruction of the corporate asset owned by Ilva in Extraordinary Administration ".

Ansa learns this from legal sources close to the Arcelor Mittal dossier, which highlight "security risks" and the fact that there would be a "total block of the production of the Plant, qualified as being of strategic interest, the only one in Italy to 'integrated cycle' for steel production ".

The sentence of the TAR of Lecce establishes that ArcelorMittal Italia must proceed with the shutdown of the plants in the hot area within 60 days and rejects the appeal of ArcelorMittal Italia and Ilva in AS, against the order of the mayor of Taranto of 27 February 2020 . The mayor's provision concerned the "health risk deriving from the production of the plant" and "emissions into the atmosphere due to plant anomalies" on the one hand linked to the events of August 2019 of the "E312 chimney" and, on the other, on generic events "odors warned in the city of Taranto between 23 and 24 February 2020".

Following inspections, inspections and reports, filed with the TAR of Lecce, not only AMI, but not even the Ministry of the Environment and Ispra, Higher Institute for Environmental Protection and Research, the body responsible for verifying compliance with the Aia requirements , have identified a correlation between these events and the production cycle of the steel plant.

In fact, the sources explain, "it was not possible to identify, as requested by the trade union ordinance," sections of the plant affected by emission criticalities "nor any measures necessary to resolve such criticality claims".

Therefore, the legal sources point out, "without any technical support from Ispra and Mattm, the sentence of the Lecce TAR requires the start of the plant shutdown procedures, with irreparable damage to the plants as well as safety risks".

The shutdown of the hot area would in any case entail "a total blockage of the production of the plant, qualified as a 'national strategic interest' and whose production, according to the law, is instead absolutely necessary to maintain and safeguard, since it is the only 'integrated cycle' plant on the national territory for the production of steel ".