Stellantis, Tim, banks, ports and more. All the advice of Copasir against France and China
In the annual report on Italian national security, Copasir calls on the authorities to pay attention to the economic penetration of foreign governments, such as France or China, in strategic sectors. All the details
The Parliamentary Committee for the Security of the Republic (Copasir), chaired by Adolfo Urso, has published its annual report on Italian national and economic security.
With regard to the protection of strategic assets for our country, the body invites us to pay attention to the economic penetration of France.
CDP IN STELLANTIS TO BALANCE FRANCE?
The report dedicates a paragraph to the impact of the ecological transition on the automotive supply chain, “among the most important in the Italian industrial panorama”. And on Stellantis , the vehicle manufacturer born from the merger of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles with the French Psa group, COPASIR records a shift in the control center of the newly formed group on the French side ", referring to the increase in the share held by the French state ( about 6 percent).
In order to counterbalance it and rebalance the Italian component with the French one, the Committee then proposes the entry of Cassa Depositi e Prestiti (controlled by the Ministry of Economy) into the shareholding of Stellantis, "thus protecting technologies and employment". In this regard, Copasir claims that the FCA-PSA merger had "already evident repercussions in the related sector connected with the production lines of the Italian plants ".
STEELWORK AND HYDROGEN
In terms of energy transition, according to the Committee, the steel sector, due to its energy-intensive character and its potentially high environmental impact, is going through a difficult time and it is therefore necessary to ensure its adaptation to the new low-carbon context to avoid its failure.
However, given the high costs of reconversion, “it will be essential to identify those measures aimed at protecting the Italian and European productive realities which […] risk being overwhelmed on the market for products from other geographical areas. Among the measures that may be adopted, the imposition of European duties for the import of products manufactured without respecting pre-established environmental standards will not be neglected ”. Recently also Guido Crosetto and Gianclaudio Torlizzi had proposed the introduction of European duties on imports of "products considered strategic".
Considering the difficulty of electrification of steel production processes, Copasir invites us to “give maximum stimulus to the research and development of technologies for the production of green hydrogen also as an enabling factor for the reconversion of the steel sector. Reconversion that will make use of natural gas in a transitional phase and before the landing of hydrogen ".
“The steel sector”, continues Copasir, “by its very nature cannot do without the use of carbon. In a broader perspective of carbon neutrality, the eco-compatibility of these production plants must therefore also be achieved through the use of techniques for the capture of CO2 ".
“Even in this sector”, adds the Commission, “our country boasts the presence of industrial entities with adequate skills”, such as Eni , which has a carbon capture project in Ravenna.
WHAT TO DO WITH TIM AND VIVENDI
On telecommunications, in order to guarantee their safety, Copasir invites the government to proceed rapidly towards the creation "of a single network under public control […], also in order to prevent separate projects for the creation of broadband networks, carried out by various market players, can make the construction of a single network infrastructure controlled by the state more complex and costly ".
The body underlines that Telecom Italia, one of the most important players in the Italian telecommunications market, is under the control of the French company Vivendi (around 24 per cent, while the share of Cassa Depositi e Prestiti stops at 9.8). Through Tim, however, Vivendi exercises control over Sparkle , the company of the Tim group that deals with submarine Internet cables, and Telsy, which specializes in communications security.
"Recent is the interest of the American fund KKR in the acquisition of 100% of the control of the Telecom Group", underlines Copasir, according to which "this affair […] once again demonstrates the urgency of a decision regarding the network the only one under public control by the Executive ".
THE SUBMARINE INTERNET CABLES
The network of submarine Internet cables – infrastructures of enormous importance for the amount of data they carry – owned by Sparkle between Europe, the Middle East and Africa is defined by COPASIR as "a strategic resource for our country" which acts as a "bridge of access to European telecommunications networks […] in particular through the hubs of Palermo and Genoa ”.
Therefore, the Committee "considers it appropriate to highlight the need to put in place all measures to ensure the necessary protection of these interconnection nodes with respect to the action of foreign actors who may be interested in the acquisition of their control as well as a foreign policy for the realization networks with interventions by national governments ".
THE BANKS
In addition to the automotive and telecommunications sectors, France is also under special supervision in the banking sector. In fact, Copasir spoke in the report of "a significant presence of foreign capital in the Italian banking and insurance system, characterized by a process of aggregation that led to the establishment of about one hundred groups on the national territory". The body therefore invited the authorities to consider "the introduction of regulatory instruments aimed at encouraging the investment of private savings in the Italian banking and production system and at preserving the presence of institutional investors in the capital of banking groups".
Last June, the Italian bank Creval (or Credito Valtellinese), for example, joined the French group Crédit Agricole, which is pursuing an expansion plan in Italy.
THE PORTS
Copasir also focuses a lot on ports, around which – he writes – "in recent years there has been intense activity by non-EU actors aimed at acquiring shareholdings, in some cases also controlling".
Specifically, the Committee gives the example of the Chinese company Cosco which "has not only acquired the shareholding and in some cases the management of various European port terminals but is also, through its own subsidiary, the world's leading container producer". The body then invites the Italian authorities to pay attention to the moves of "non-European subjects" interested in the supply chains; the risk, in case of underestimation of the risk, is to end up in a “future potential dependence on the latter”.
Also because, the report reads, “the main Italian port infrastructures have already been the object of attention by foreign actors. Consider, for example, the case of discussions with the Chinese government on the occasion of the signing of the Memorandum on the Silk Road, which also registered an interest in the ports of Savona-Vado Ligure, Venice, Trieste, Naples, Salerno and Taranto ".
“Although there has not been a transfer of control abroad of these infrastructures”, it is specified, “they certainly constitute strategic assets at risk. This also in consideration of the geographical location and the conformation of the Italian territory that make our country a strategic bridge between Europe and the rest of the Mediterranean, in particular with the countries bordering its southern shore ".
THE UNIVERSITIES
Finally, universities and research centers. For Copasir it is necessary "to intervene in order to introduce specific safeguards and mechanisms to protect the national interest" to react to the "interest of foreign state actors, especially Chinese, in the Italian academic world", especially in those areas where research is carried out on technologies of strategic value. The risk of this foreign penetration, the Committee writes, is the “stealing of technology and know-how”.
"This approach adopted by some foreign companies", we read, that is the partnerships with universities and various centers, "risks constituting a sort of" Trojan horse "able to circumvent the stakes set by the golden power with respect to penetration in some sectors strategic industrialists ".
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/economia/copasir-relazione-protezione-asset-strategici-italia/ on Thu, 10 Feb 2022 15:11:30 +0000.