The environmental reclamation of Bagnoli has started, that of the Taranto area still needs a few steps. The two major redevelopment operations of industrial areas (ex in the case of Bagnoli) in the South have different times. Taranto especially needs to share projects with the local community. In Naples, the Government, the Region and the Municipality have signed the agreement for the former Italsider area, but for the Apulian area we have to wait until September, when new indications on how to proceed will arrive from Brussels.
The game is big. The investments announced for the medium term are over 2,5 billion euros and need to be well organised. Extraordinary opportunity for institutions and companies to challenge the future having what it takes to ensure sustainability, profits and employment. A delegation from the European Parliament visited the iron and steel and refinery sites. The deputies of the Petitions Commission of the European Parliament arrived in Taranto following requests from environmental associations and grassroots committees, not yet fully convinced of the goodness and effectiveness of the announced programmes. Times are long and before 2023 there is no thought of concluding. Despite intermediate stages.
The delegation led by MEP Cecilia Wikstrom met institutions, trade unions, associations, having in hand petitions on the Ilva and Eni plants. A comparison focused on the aspects of health and environmental protection, for some time a substantial point of confrontation on the fate of the large area. Both the new owners of Ilva and Eni are committed to reclaiming the areas under their responsibility. The European delegation has acquired many documents and promised that in September it will approve a text in the commission and let people know what else to do operationally. In practice, new indications, in addition to those already approved by other Italian and European bodies.
Some indications have been anticipated by Wikstrom herself. Both for Ilva (a company of national strategic interest since 2013) and for Eni's Tempa Rossa project, the protection of health, the protection of the environment, the safeguarding of employment and sustainable growth are factors that must go " hand in hand and cannot be considered separate”. Practical consequence: greater and better dialogue with citizens. If you don't dialogue with those who live in the area, report pollution, deaths and previous damage, no goal can be achieved. From this point of view, the three years of incomprehension experienced in Naples on the Bagnoli affair, between the Municipality, the Region, the committees, tell us something.
We recommend that citizens' organizations be made more involved in the decisions that will be made, MEPs said. Everything suggests that in September the commission's document will insist heavily on this key. The same things were said to the management of the Eni refinery and the managers of the plant proved to be aware of the importance of dialogue with the city. Industry and the environment can coexist, just understand each other and clear the field of misunderstandings and conflicts.
Legambiente, for example, criticizes the absence of the Environmental Plan and the long lead times for interventions deemed more urgent, also envisaged by the AIA (Integral Environmental Authorization) of the Ministry of the Environment. The unions are following the commitments of the new Ilva owners with extreme attention. Yesterday they met the Undersecretary for Economic Development Teresa Bellanova acknowledging that the process of relaunching Taranto is not easy at all. ArcelorMittal, which with Marcegaglia acquired control of Ilva through Am Investco Italy, explained the operating philosophy to be applied in Taranto based on a "careful focus on health, safety, the environment, research and social responsibility of enterprise".
All to be verified, controlled and shared, with the government as a non-disinterested actor. The Secretary of Fim Cisl, Marco Bentivogli said that the negotiation should be divided into individual aspects of the industrial and environmental plan. The plan is visible until 2023, but many aspects will need to be clarified from September onwards. The game, as we said, is played out in a very broad field that brings together all the elements of modern economic planning. Even more so if you play it in Southern Italy. And in September it will also be necessary to take into account the document of the Petitions commission, which will have its weight in the dialogue with the territory.
