Overview
- The Court of Appeal in Milan ordered on Monday that Ilva’s ‘area a caldo’ must stop operations within 90 days and may only restart after all asbestos is removed and fine-particle emissions are proven to be within safe limits.
- Judges recorded about 2,000 kilograms of asbestos still inside hot‑area equipment and tied emission controls to the plant’s authorized 6 million tonnes per year scenario, while partially disapplying parts of the 2025 environmental permit (AIA).
- The decision applies CJEU precedent that serious environmental and health risks cannot be deferred, and it expands earlier February orders by adding an immediate asbestos removal requirement to the suspension grounds.
- The ruling puts the government-backed sale to prospective buyers such as Jindal and Flacks at risk, prompted emergency ministerial talks, and led the Council of Ministers to approve an extra €100 million bridge loan to keep the site running during negotiations.
- Unions have called short strikes and agreed to weekly technical talks with ministers to design a transition plan for workers, while experts and industry groups warn that removing asbestos and cutting PM emissions will be technically hard, costly, and could make a near‑term restart infeasible.