Industry Minister Carlo Calenda
held a surprise meeting with the mayor of the Puglia port city
of Taranto Rinaldo Melucci on Tuesday and convened new
negotiations on the troubled ILVA steel plant based on the local
administrator's requests.
The meeting came the day after Calenda reiterated his call
for Puglia Governor Michele Emiliano to withdraw the region's
legal challenge to a decree modifying the environmental cleanup
plan for Europe's largest steelworks, which is undergoing a
painful restructuring.
Assessment of the health damage caused by the plant, which
has been linked to higher than average local cancer rates, and
an analysis of the decree with a view to making improvements,
will also be on the agenda.
Emiliano criticised the minister's lack of institutional
'correctness' in relation to Tuesday's meeting.
However, he also said he was open to an 'unprejudiced'
negotiation and to withdrawing the legal challenge to the decree
lodged by the Puglia Region and Taranto city council with the
Lecce regional administrative court 'in the event of a positive
outcome' to the talks.
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