The European Commission on
Wednesday opened an in-depth probe to establish whether
financial support given by the Italian State to troubled
steelmaker ILVA complies with norms banning State aid to
industry. The Commission said it would "assess in particular
whether the eased access to financing awarded to ILVA to
modernise its works at Taranto has given it an advantage over
competitors." It said that "given the urgency of decontaminating
the site, the Commission also foresees guarantees that will
allow Italy to immediately carry out the environmental
clean-up". ILVA's highly polluting plant in the Puglia port
city, linked to high cancer rates in the area, has been the
subject of several government moves to save jobs while cleaning
up the site.
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