"European Court condemns Italy for pollution at Ilva steel plant", 24 Jan 2019

The European Court of Human Rights on [24 January 2019] condemned Italy for failing to protect citizens from a polluting steel plant which has been blamed for hundreds of cancer-related deaths…

The Strasbourg-based court ruled that the Italian state must pay 161 people who lived close to Ilva 5,000 euros ($5,648) each in damages after they brought cases in 2013 and 2015.

Ilva, Europe’s largest steel plant, has been blighted by labor unrest as well as environmental problems and was sold last year to ArcelorMittal days before it ran out of cash.

Besides the 1.8 billion euro cost of acquisition, ArcelorMittal said it would invest 1.2 billion euros to boost productivity and 1.1 billion euros to curb pollution.

However, the Court described the clean-up plan agreed, which is not due to be completed until 2023, as “extremely slow”…