The government is working on the dossier of the former Ilva to reach an agreement for a consensual divorce with ArcelorMittal and avoid a long legal dispute. This was said - according to some union sources - by government representatives at the discussion table on the former Ilva at Palazzo Chigi. In particular, the lawyers of the two partners are at work in these hours with the intention of quickly reaching a consensual solution and avoiding long litigation. By Wednesday it will be known whether there are any conditions for the agreement.
On the former Ilva "there is an urgent need for a drastic intervention that marks a clear turning point with respect to the not at all exciting events of the last 10 years". So the Minister of Enterprise and Made in Italy, Adolfo Urso, during a briefing to the Senate. "We are at a decisive moment that calls everyone to a sense of responsibility," he said.
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Nothing that was planned and agreed upon has been achieved. None of the commitments made have been kept in relation to employment commitments and industrial revival. In recent years, production has been progressively reduced in defiance of the agreements signed," said Urso. "Even in years when steel production was highly profitable in Europe, such as in 2019, it was kept low and left the field open to other foreign players."
On the former Ilva "we intend to reverse course by changing crew. We are committed to rebuilding the former Ilva competitive on the green technology on which the Italian steel mills, the first in Europe, are already committed," the minister said. "The plant is in a situation of serious crisis. In 2023, production will be less than 3 million tonnes, as in 2022, well below the minimum target of 4 million, and then this year it will rise to 5 million".
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Arcelor Mittal has declared itself willing to accept to become a minority but not to contribute financially by reason of its share, offloading the entire financial burden on the State but, at the same time, claiming the privilege granted in the original agreements between the shareholders made when they created the company Acciaierie d'Italia to share governance in any case, so as to condition any further decision. This is neither acceptable nor feasible both in substance and in light of European constraints on state aid." This is what the Minister of Enterprise, Adolfo Urso, said to the Senate. "We have therefore instructed Invitalia and its legal team to explore any possible consequent solution"
Urso: 'Unbalanced shareholders' agreements signed in 2020'
"Faced with the threat of abandoning the site and in the absence of alternatives, in March 2020 the Conte 2 Government, Minister Patuanelli, started a new negotiation with the Franco-Indian investors from which Acciaierie d'Italia was born with the entry of Invitalia at 38% and with the signing of shareholders' agreements strongly unbalanced in favor of the private entity. Pacts that to define leonine is an understatement," Urso argued in the information where he reconstructed, since 2016, the story of the former Ilva plants.
"No one who cares about the national interest would ever sign that kind of agreement. No one with knowledge of industrial dynamics would ever accept those conditions. Governance had in fact remained in the hands of the private shareholder who, in the meantime, however, deconsolidated the asset, demonstrating its disengagement, also recalling its technicians and no longer injecting any resources into the company," Urso continued.
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