Juridical conditions do not
exist for Franco-Indian steel giant ArcelorMittal to pull out of
the former ILVA steel group, according to an appeal by the
group's three extraordinary commissioners that will be filed
this week, sources who have seen the appeal said Monday.
Meanwhile the filing of the formal act at a Milan court in
which ArcelorMittal asks to get out of the ex-ILVA leasing
contract was put off until Tuesday, qualified sources told ANSA
Monday.
The measure will then be assigned to a special business
section of the Milan court.
ArcelorMittal has said it needs to pull out citing the
lifting of a 'penal shield' protecting a cleanup of the highly
polluting Taranto works and the necessity of shedding 5,000
workers across the group, which employs over 8,000 people at
Taranto and some 3,000 more at Genoa and Novi Ligure.
The government is split on restoring the shield with many in
the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S), led by Foreign
Minister Luigi Di Maio, against providing protection for a plant
whose pollution levels have been linked to high local cancer
rates in and around Taranto.
But Premier Giuseppe Conte and the M5S's ruling partner, the
centre-left Democratic Party (PD), are firmly in favour of
bringing the shield back.
All parties in government, including ex-premier and former PD
leader Matteo Renzi's new centrist Italia Viva (IV) party, are
against the job cuts.
There has been talk of the former ILVA group, which was once
under state control before passing to the Riva group, being
re-nationalised.
Any solution will have to continue to strike a balance
between protecting the health of Tarantans and saving jobs at
the sprawling plant, one of the biggest in Europe.
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