EC calls on Italy to act on ILVA
P(ANSA) – Brussels, April 15 – The European Commission called on Italy Tuesday to live up to promises it made in connection with troubled steelmaker ILVA and infraction procedures over the environmental-health scandal in the southern city of Taranto, sources said. The EC is preparing to send a letter outlining new directives on the plant, sources added.BRThe latest move follows questions raised by the EC last September over earlier directives and conditions it imposed on the ILVA plant blamed for a major environmental and health disaster over a number of years.BRThe EC warned then that it was opening an infraction procedure against Italy, and evaluating if Rome failed to apply European laws in the case.BRILVA has faced enormous problems in the past two years, leading to a decision by the Italian government to appoint a commissioner to take over management of the company’s ill-fated Taranto plant – the largest steel producer in Europe.BRILVA has been at the centre of political and legal battles since July 2012 when local magistrates ordered the partial closure of the Taranto plant due to serious health concerns.BRLast month, Puglia Governor Nichi Vendola was among 50 people who prosecutors were seeking to indict in an investigation into the ILVA environmental disaster. Vendola, the head of the leftist SEL party, was named along with the Riva family, which owns the ILVA plant, as well as the mayor, a police officer, a priest, and various public officials.BRVendola is accused of trying to oust the managing director of the regional environmental authority ARPA, who was allegedly “disliked” by ILVA management, according to investigation warrants issued last fall.BRThe ILVA plant has been at the centre of a long-running judicial and political drama as courts have moved to force the company to make expensive environmental upgrades after more than a decade of polluting the area and creating health problems for workers and nearby residents.BR/P
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