ILVA, Brussels rebuked Italy once more: “Serious consequences for human health and environment”

Once again, the European Commission underlined that ILVA, the steel plant located in Taranto, is illegal. It does not respect EU laws and above all it represent a serious risk for human health, with the risk of causing an immediate significant negative effect on the environment. Last September, the Commission sent a letter to Italian authorities, to which Italy answered on December 2^nd. The explanations did not reassure Brussels, which sent another letter earlier this week, underlining four new possible breaches of EU norms and asking for further information to be given within two months.

In particular, the ILVA site – as explained by a European Commission spokesperson, Isaac Valero Ladron – violates the new EU Directive on industrial emissions as well as the Seveso Directive, establishing that Member States should identify industrial sites at risk and adopt suitable measures for preventing relevant accidents connected with dangerous substances, limiting their consequences on human health and environment.

First, the Commission highlighted that the plant still does not apply the conditions foreseen in the authorisation to operate, given that “there are proofs that the ILVA plant has caused significant pollution.” Member States, on the contrary, “should take all the measures required to have the plants operating without creating significant pollution.”

Second, the authorisation to operate is under accuse: it seems to be “inadequate” because “it does not include all the necessary requisites,” at least concerning aspects such as “the functioning of landfills, the management of by-products, the management of waste, of water and sewage, the protection of soil and underground water.”

Another possible breach of EU laws then could come from the fact that the plant is still working. Given that there are proofs that the ILVA site “represent an immediate risk for human health and that is risks to cause a significant negative effect on the environment,” said the Commission, Italy was obliged to suspend the functioning of the entire plant or of relevant parts of it. And this didn’t happen.

Furthermore, the ILVA site violates the Seveso Directive on prevention of major industrial accidents. Operators, said the Commission, should produce a safety report, with periodical re-examinations and 5-year updates. ILVA did not comply: there is no update of the 2008 safety report.

Consequently, Italy risks new infringement procedures: Italian authorities are given two months to give a satisfactory reply or there will be a reasoned opinion against it – just the prelude of the Commission referring it to Court.