The decision on the eco-monster of Taranto has arrived. The Civil Court of Appeal of Milan confirmed the provision which last July ordered the blocking of the hot area of the former Ilva plant, which must be implemented by 28 October. The requests presented by the companies Ilva and Acciaierie d’Italia were rejected by the magistrates. And the message sent is clear: the protection of people comes before productivity.
“The balance between the opposing constitutional interests cannot help but favor the reasons of health protection”: this is the heart of the provision. For the judges “in the conflict between the right to carry out business activities and that of citizens to health and respect for the limits of tolerability of the emissions to which they are subjected, the latter can only prevail”.
As is sadly known, the former Ilva of Taranto is the largest steel plant in Italy and for over a decade it has been at the center of an industrial, environmental and employment crisis. Since the first intervention by the judiciary in 2012 due to the impact of pollution, there have been seizures, receiverships and attempted sales. The main node is the hot area, where the blast furnaces transform the raw materials into steel: it is the most strategic part of the plant, but also the most polluting. Of the four blast furnaces present, only one is active today.
At the end of July the Court of Appeal ordered the hot area to be stopped within 90 days, until the asbestos was removed and fine dust emissions were reduced to within safety limits. A decision that makes the sale of the plant even more complex, because a potential buyer would have to face expensive rehabilitation interventions.
The mayor of Taranto: “We aim for investments that promote recovery”
The reaction of the mayor of Taranto was not long in coming.
We respect the decision of the judges of the Court of Appeal of Milan, a decision that does not surprise us – commented Piero Bitetti – We had the opportunity to say clear things to Rome, to the Government: the future of the city must be protected with measures that preserve the economy and development, workers must be protected with compensation measures so that not a single job is lost. The acceleration imposed by this provision makes their implementation even more urgent.
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For the mayor it is now necessary to focus on the economic revival of the steel plant. “We are aiming for investments that favor recovery. Because – he underlines – without adequate interventions we will have to face the impoverishment of the territory, with a lowering of the quality of life, with a community that risks falling ill. 16 September will be the point of no return for the shutdown of the plants. The inter-ministerial table that we asked for at Palazzo Chigi – he concludes – will have to be established in good time and provide answers”.
In the meantime, the unions are pushing for the workers of the former Ilva to be protected and are asking for urgent and concrete interventions.
We believe it is essential that the government responds to the requests contained in the extraordinary national plan for social security and the relaunch of the former Ilva and immediately convenes the permanent table at Palazzo Chigi” – Fim, Fiom and Uilm say in a joint note. – The workers demand answers and the manufacturing system is waiting to know the fate of steel production in our country. We will not passively accept a plan that resolves with years of layoffs and layoffs already announced. We must avoid the explosion of social bomb with ordinary and extraordinary interventions.
Will Taranto really breathe again?
For the appellant citizens (and not only) the Court of Appeal’s decision represents a victory in terms of health protection. Lawyer Ascanio Amenduni, one of the lawyers for the eleven residents of Taranto – including a seriously ill 12-year-old child – underlined that the principle affirmed by the judges is clear: human health must prevail over the needs of production when the plants are dangerous for people and the environment. The civil proceedings, started in 2021 in Milan, have so far seen decisions favorable to citizens by the Court, the Court of Justice of the European Union and the Court of Appeal.
According to Amenduni, the stop in the hot area will allow the city of Taranto to “breathe different air, free of harmful emissions and polluting substances”.
However, the lawyer also addressed a thought to the workers of the plant, hoping that the Government and the Region can identify solutions to protect employment. “We could not continue to safeguard work at the price of health,” he reiterated, underlining that the challenge now will be to reconcile the right to health with the protection of jobs. The decision had been contested by Acciaierie d’Italia and Ilva in extraordinary administration, which had requested the urgent suspension of the measure, arguing that the blockade of the hot area would have caused irreversible damage to the plants, put employment levels at risk and compromised the public investments made over the years to guarantee production continuity.
Taranto now finds itself faced with the most difficult challenge: transforming a judicial victory into a real turning point. The stop to the hot area marks a fixed point in the long battle for health protection, but it does not alone resolve a crisis that has lasted for many years. The city and its inhabitants ask to no longer be forced to choose between a job and the right to live in a safe environment.
