On Monday 11 September, Bruno Le Maire, the French Minister for the Economy stated on Twitter that the aim of the Italian and French authorities was to reach an agreement on the STX France dossier (Saint-Nazaire shipyards) for 27 September and the summit taking place between the President of France, Emmanuel Macron, and Italian Prime Minister, Paolo Gentiloni.
This statement follows a meeting that Mr Le Maire described as “constructive” in Rome with his Italian counterpart, Pier Carlo Padoan. A meeting to discuss this subject took place in Rome between the two ministers on Tuesday 1 August (see EUROPE 11842). At the end of this meeting, the two leaders expressed, “their determination to overcome the differences involved in balancing the capital structure of STX”.
The dispute between France and Italy blew up when the new French government announced on 27 July last that there would be a temporary nationalisation of the Saint-Nazaire shipyards, despite an agreement concluded by the previous government stipulating that 48% of the capital would be owned by the French Fincantieri Company and 6% by the Italian Trieste Foundation. If this latter option had been adopted, the Italian share of the total capital of the French shipyard would have been more than 50%, which the French government finds unacceptable. (Original version in French by Lucas Tripoteau)