The European Parliament adopted a resolution tabled by the Committee on Petitions on a new sustainable and competitive steel industry, based on Petition 760/2007, from an Italian citizen, on the ILVA steel plant and the dioxin alarm in Taranto. Parliament notes that the petitioners have forcefully expressed their concerns about the extremely elevated levels of dioxin emissions from the ILVA steel plant in Taranto, which have had, and continue to have, a significant, harmful and enduring impact on the health of the local population.

Parliament notes that parts of the ILVA steel plant were recently closed down by the Italian authorities in order to avoid further pollution, and the authorities and the existing plant owners have a pressing legal obligation to secure a further drastic reduction in the harmful emissions. The precarious and dangerous situation of the ILVA steel plant is also causing serious environmental degradation and damage and grave social and economic problems in the south of Italy, and the privatisation of this plant has not led to any improvement in the environmental security of the sector.

Parliament also notes that the steel industry, which employs some 360 000 workers, is a crucial economic sector of the European Union and Parliament has a duty and a responsibility to clearly demonstrate its solidarity with the workers of the ILVA steel plant and their families, who have been affected by this totally unacceptable situation.

Under these circumstances, Members call on the Commission and the Council to develop a new policy for the steel industry, which will boost growth and employment during the economic crisis and is compatible with the health and safety of all EU citizens and residents. The Commission and the Council must also to work together with all the parties involved in order to ensure that this policy coherently integrates economic objectives with social and environmental priorities, so as to build a modern, competitive and sustainable European steel industry which fully complies with EU environmental law.

The Italian authorities, in turn, are asked to ensure the environmental rehabilitation of the polluted steel plant site as a matter of extreme urgency, while at the same time ensuring that the costs incurred in relation to the preventive or remedial action taken are covered in accordance with the polluter pays principle, as required by Article 8 of Directive 2004/35/EC on environmental liability.