If the steelworks activities of theformer Ilva of Taranto are serious and relevant dangers for the environment and health public, then the system must be turned off. This is what was established by one ruling of the Court of Justice of the EU which ruled on a citizens’ appeal against the plant in the context of the case called C-626/22. The ball now passes to Court of Milan which will have to evaluate these risks.
Stop extensions and suspension of activities
This is the fundamental passage of the sentence: “In case of serious and relevant dangers for the integrity of the environment and human health, the deadline granted to the manager of an installation to comply with the measures for the protection of the environment and human health cannot be extended repeatedly and the exercise of the installation must be suspended“.
For years, authorities and the population have had to deal with a dramatic choice: the protection of public health or the safeguarding of employment. The EU Court has untied the Gordian knot by putting in black and white that the right to health must always prevail.
The appeal of Taranto citizens
Everything comes from appealpresented by several inhabitants of Taranto to Court of Milan with the assistance of the lawyers Ascanio Amenduni and Maurizio Rizzo Striano, against the continuation of the operation of the steelworks due to the feared health risks. The appellants argued that the facility would not comply with the requirements of the industrial emissions directive. The Milanese judges passed the papers to Court of Justice of the European Union based in Luxembourg asking whether the Italian legislation (including the exemptions approved to keep the Taranto steelworks open) is in conflict with the community directive.
The three questions
The Court, in plenary session, was called upon to respond to three questionsand to all three he answered no, as he explained to The Republic the lawyer Amenduni. The first it concerned the possibility for Italian legislation to exclude the assessment of health damage from the integrated environmental authorisation. The second question concerned the possibility for Italian law to exclude from the list of harmful substances to be evaluated all those that are known from time to time with the evaluation of substances which must therefore be restricted to those that are traditionally linked to an industrial plant. The third question concerned the possibility of Italian legislation being able to extend the implementation of the 2010 environmental directive from year to year, as happened in Taranto.
The European Court first of all underlined the connection between the protection of the environment and that of human health. This is, the judges declared, the basis of European law, guaranteed in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the Union.
Take into account the emissions actually generated
“In the 2019 – we read in the sentence – la European Court of Human Rights found that the steelworks caused significant harmful effects on the environment and health of the inhabitants of the area. […] Various measures to reduce its impact have been envisaged since 2012, but the deadlines established for their implementation have been repeatedly postponed.”
“Contrary to what was claimed by Ilva and the Italian government – stated the Court – the review procedure cannot be limited to setting limit values for polluting substances whose emission was foreseeable. It is also necessary to take into account the emissions actually generated from the installation during its operation and relating to other polluting substances”.
Meanwhile, Minister Urso recently exposed the financing plan foreseen for the conversion of the former Ilva in Taranto: 700 million for whoever will purchase it.
Fitto had already announced the allocation of 150 million for the rescue. There are still 1,700 people on layoffs.
In February, the extraordinary commissioner of the former Ilva Giancarlo Quaranta asked the judge of the bankruptcy section of Milan for a declaration of insolvency.
