There is no peace in the steel mill. After the umpteenth clash between Calenda and Emiliano, this time the bad news comes from Brussels. Italy has granted illegal state aid to Ilva for around 84 million euros and will have to recover it: this was established by the European Antitrust, which had already screwed up the procedure in 2016 and is now presenting the bill to Italy, specifying that the funds "they were used to finance the liquidity needs of the steel company relating to its commercial activities and not to meet the costs of environmental remediation".
In detail, the Commission examined five State support measures for Ilva, concluding that two loans granted in 2015 (when the insolvency procedure was opened) involved illegal State aid and an undue advantage to the steel company over its competitors, in violation of EU rules on state aid.
In particular, the illegal support concerns the financial conditions relating to a state guarantee on a loan of €400 million and a public loan of €300 million.
The Commission concluded that the other three support measures examined do not qualify as State aid, as they comply with market conditions and are not imputable to the Italian State or do not involve public funds. This is in particular the case of the funds amounting to over 1,1 billion euros that the owners of Ilva transferred to the company in June 2017 and which are intended to remedy the serious environmental deficiencies that characterize the activities of the Taranto plant.
"The EU rules on state aid only allow the competitiveness and long-term efficiency of steel mills to be promoted, but not to support producers who are in financial difficulty", recalls the Commission in a note.
The impact that all this will have on the sale of Ilva to the Indians of ArcelorMittal remains to be understood, an operation already jeopardized by the dispute between the central state and local authorities.
