Piombino, new guarantees for industrial and environmental redevelopment
An amendment to the former Ilva decree in the Senate aims to facilitate access to credit for those who want to start up production activities in the area
by Marco Mobili
3' min read
Key points
3' min read
An amendment aimed at unblocking the attempt to relaunch the environmental and industrial area of Piombino. It has been presented by the majority to the Ilva decree-law, now being debated in the Senate, with the intention of removing the financial and regulatory obstacles, which at the moment appear insurmountable, to public and private investment in the former steel plant of the Tuscan municipality. At the heart of the proposal is the introduction of new rules to make access to credit feasible for economic operators wishing to set up production activities in the area now classified as a Site of National Interest due to the quantity and quality of waste and the status of complex industrial crisis.
Piombino as a national strategic hub
The Piombino site, for years the epicentre of industrial and environmental disputes, represents a challenge and an opportunity for Italy. The basic idea is to upgrade and develop infrastructure, ports and environments not only to relaunch the Italian steel industry, but also to create new jobs and ensure higher sustainability standards. The new amendment, which will be voted on in the Senate from Monday, 21 July, in line with the Programme Agreement signed by the Ministry of Enterprise and Made in Italy and the main industrial and territorial stakeholders, aims to encourage investment also through innovative financial instruments, such as the registration of mortgages on works built by the concessionaire on state-owned areas. A measure that aims, as mentioned, to unblock investments and, at the same time, access to credit to finance them, as it offers a real guarantee to credit institutions and long-term investors.
The knot of guarantees and surface property
To date, the investment required for the conversion of Piombino is estimated at over EUR 2.5 billion for the implementation of state-of-the-art technologies and environmental remediation. To make recourse to bank and institutional financing possible - the industrial risk being too high for private capital alone - the text of the amendment introduces two major innovations.
The superficial property granted to the concessionaire, i.e. the right in rem over the works realised, which allows the registration of mortgages to guarantee the financing obtained, a principle already provided for maritime property (Article 41 of the Navigation Code) and now explicitly extended to the areas of state property subject to concession.
The second new element is legal certainty. When the concession expires, both the surface right and the mortgage are extinguished. Non-removable works automatically become the property of the State without charge to the Treasury, unless otherwise decided by the granting authority, which may order demolition at the concessionaire's expense, according to the rules in force today. This regulatory framework, which ties in with the provisions of Articles 823 and 2816 of the Italian Civil Code, represents a guarantee for the State, but also a solid basis of protection for lenders, reducing the uncertainty associated with real rights over state-owned works.
