The ILVA steel plant in Taranto (Italy)
The ILVA steel plant, located in Taranto, southern Italy, is Europe's largest.
Over 10,000 people are employed there, but it is a major source of air, land and water pollution, which has pushed up the local mortality rate.
What was the Greens' position?
The Greens urged the responsible authorities to implement the highest EU environmental standards, in particular the Directives on integrated pollution prevention and control (IPPC) and environmental liability.
This legislation prioritises the protection of public health and the use of the best available technology for that purpose.
We faced resistance from the industry-friendly approach of the EPP and Parliament's Committee on Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE), which turned this petition on environmental concern about dioxins into a strategic industrial issue, bringing Industry and Entrepreneurship Commissioner Antonio Tajani to the committee for the debate.
Did other MEPs accept the Greens' position?
Which points did the Greens lose?
Unfortunately, the Italian government prioritised industrial interest over public health and did not make the plant's private operator liable.
Some weeks later it even enacted a special decree allowing the plant to re-open.
This decree was designed to override a previous judgement handed down by a local court which had ruled that the plant should not operate and had sequestered a significant sum of money from its owners to be spent on the area's environmental recovery.
Procedure:Resolutions on topical subjects
Reference(s):2012/2905(RSP)
Lead MEP:Erminia Mazzoni (EPP)
Green MEP responsible:-
Voted:13/12/2012
Staff contact:Marc Gimenéz (Email)