Industrial Policy & Trade Monitor· 2663 actions· ✨ 89 recent

The European Commission cleared, under EU State aid rules, a rescue loan of up to EUR 390 million from the Italian government to Acciaierie d'Italia (AdI, formerly ILVA), operator of Italy's largest integrated steelworks at Taranto. AdI has been under insolvency administration since February 2024 and faces near-term liquidity shortfalls to cover operating costs — supplier payments and wages — while a tender process to sell the business to a new operator continues. The loan is capped at the projected liquidity shortfall, priced at a market interest rate, and limited to a maximum six-month duration, consistent with EU rescue-aid conditions.

SIMEST, the export-credit and internationalisation arm of Italy's state-owned Cassa Depositi e Prestiti group, launched the "Misura Stati Uniti" on 22 January 2026: an integrated EUR 300 million package to support Italian companies' direct investment and competitiveness in the United States. The package combines over EUR 100 million for direct equity participation in US subsidiaries of Italian firms with EUR 200 million in subsidised financing under Fund 394 (managed by SIMEST under agreement with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs). It forms part of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation's "Piano d'Azione per l'Export," reflecting the US's position as Italy's largest extra-EU export market.

Law No. 4 of 15 January 2026 (Gazzetta Ufficiale n. 15 of 20 January 2026, in force 21 January 2026) converted with amendments Decree-Law No. 175 of 21 November 2025 ("Transizione 5.0"). During parliamentary conversion the Camera dei Deputati inserted a new Article 2-bis that materially expands Italy's Golden Power foreign-investment screening regime (DL 21/2012) into the financial, credit, and insurance sectors — the first explicit statutory inclusion of banking and insurance qualifying-holding transactions inside the Golden Power perimeter. The amendment introduces "national economic and financial security" as a public-order criterion alongside the traditional security and public-order profiles, and conditions exercise of special powers in the financial sector on the prior conclusion of pending European prudential and competition proceedings (ECB / EIOPA / EU Commission).

Italy's national development bank Cassa Depositi e Prestiti (CDP), together with a banking consortium led by Intesa Sanpaolo (including Crédit Agricole and Banca Popolare di Sondrio), provided a EUR 56 million financing package to ICAM SpA, an Italian chocolate and cocoa semi-finished products manufacturer based in Orsenigo (Como province). Of the total, EUR 40 million is earmarked for expansion of the Orsenigo production facility — including a new production building, an innovation centre for chocolate recipe development, energy-efficient automated machinery, and enhanced raw-material traceability systems — while EUR 16 million supports the company's capital structure. The expansion will add over 23,000 square meters across four levels and raise production capacity from 30,000 to 50,000 tons annually by 2027.

Italy's state investment agency Invitalia approved a "Contratto di Sviluppo" (Development Contract) worth EUR 103.7 million in total investment for Italian Green Factory SpA (Tea Tek group), of which EUR 67 million is Invitalia state aid (financial grant plus state loan) on eligible costs, with a further EUR 29 million routed through the Fondo di Garanzia PMI (SME Guarantee Fund). The package reindustrialises the former Whirlpool site in Naples and a second plant in Pomigliano d'Arco for photovoltaic (solar) component production, plus two smaller R&D projects (predictive diagnostics for electrical transformers/panels; walkable solar installations for road infrastructure). The plan commits to retaining 294 previously-displaced Whirlpool workers and adding 55 new hires (349 total).

Italy enacted Legge 23 settembre 2025, n. 132 — "Disposizioni e deleghe al Governo in materia di intelligenza artificiale" — published in Gazzetta Ufficiale Serie Generale n. 223 of 25 September 2025 (atto 25G00143) and entered into force on 10 October 2025. The statute makes Italy the first EU member state to enact a comprehensive national AI law complementing Regulation (EU) 2024/1689 (EU AI Act), designating AgID (Agency for Digital Italy) and ACN (National Cybersecurity Agency) as national oversight authorities under Presidency-of-the-Council-of-Ministers coordination. It sets sectoral rules for healthcare, labour, intellectual professions, public administration and the judiciary; authorises up to €1 billion in state-backed venture capital (via CDP Venture Capital) for AI, cybersecurity and telecoms; creates criminal penalties of up to five years' imprisonment for harmful deepfakes; mandates parental consent for under-14 users; and delegates secondary legislation to the Government across multiple domains.

The European Commission approved a EUR 41.5 million Italian direct-grant state aid measure to Ephos Srl, an Italian photonics SME, to help finance "Fab-2," a new manufacturing facility for glass-based photonic integrated circuits used in AI datacentres, high-performance computing and quantum computing. The aid was cleared under the European Chips Act state aid framework (Commission case SA.117987, decision of 25 July 2025) and forms part of a EUR 104.9 million total project investment. Ephos already operates a first facility (Fab-1) in Milan; Fab-2 is intended to be the first EU facility of its kind processing this glass-substrate photonic chip technology at scale.

On 24 July 2025 the European Investment Bank (EIB) and Italian energy major Eni signed a EUR 500 million (approx. USD 587.8 million) 15-year finance contract to support conversion of Eni's Livorno refinery in Tuscany into a biorefinery. The project adds a biogenic pre-treatment unit and a 500,000-tonne/year Ecofining(TM) plant able to produce HVO diesel, HVO naphtha and bio-LPG from waste and plant-residue feedstocks, with future flexibility to shift output toward sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). It is Eni's third domestic biorefinery conversion (after Venice and Gela) and part of Enilive's plan to reach 5+ million tonnes/year of biorefinery capacity by 2030. Global Trade Alert logged the financing as a "Red" (trade/investment-distorting) state loan.

Italy's national development bank Cassa Depositi e Prestiti (CDP) signed an agreement with Assifact, the Italian factoring industry association, to make available a EUR 1 billion "Plafond Factoring" dedicated to supporting liquidity for small and medium-sized enterprises and mid-cap companies operating in Italy. Banks and financial intermediaries draw on the CDP facility to acquire commercial credits from eligible companies (fewer than 250 full-time-equivalent employees for SMEs, fewer than 3,000 for mid-caps), providing short-term financing in pro-solvendo and/or pro-soluto factoring form. The measure is part of CDP's 2025-2027 Strategic Plan and follows over EUR 30 billion in similar liquidity plafonds CDP has deployed since 2009.

Italy's national development bank, Cassa Depositi e Prestiti (CDP), provided EUR 30 million in financing to the Pittini Group, one of Italy's largest steel producers, to fund sustainability investments at its Verona and Udine plants. The financing covers a low-emission transfer system for semi-finished steel products and more efficient water-treatment and production facilities. The deal is state development-bank support for decarbonisation capex in a strategic heavy-industry sector rather than a trade-restrictive measure.

The Italian government approved Decreto-Legge 26 giugno 2025, n. 92 ("Misure urgenti di sostegno ai comparti produttivi"), authorising up to EUR 200 million in financing for ILVA S.p.A. in extraordinary administration — the operator of the former Ilva steelworks at Taranto — to fund production continuity and plant-safety works. The financing can be disbursed directly to ILVA or transferred to Acciaierie d'Italia S.p.A. The same decree extends tax relief for companies operating in designated "complex industrial crisis area" zones for fiscal years 2025 and 2026. The decree was published in the Gazzetta Ufficiale and entered into force on 27 June 2025.

The European Commission approved, under EU State aid rules (Case SA.111368), Italy's reintroduction of tax and social-security relief for shipping companies that register vessels in the Italian International Register ("Registro Internazionale"). The scheme, worth an estimated EUR 5.4 billion, runs for a ten-year period from 1 January 2024 to 31 December 2033 and grants qualifying operators — including cruise-ship shipboard concessionaires — corporate income-tax reductions, withholding-tax credits, and exemptions from seafarer social-security and welfare contributions. The stated aim is to encourage ship registration under EU/EEA flags, strengthen the competitiveness of the Italian-flagged fleet, and raise compliance with EU social, environmental and safety standards; undertakings in financial difficulty are excluded.

MIMIT signed an "Accordo di Programma" with Gruppo Arvedi covering the industrial reconversion and environmental remediation of the Acciai Speciali Terni (AST) steelworks. The state is supporting the plan through a "Contratto di sviluppo per Tutela Ambientale" administered by Invitalia, with requested state financial support of EUR 96.5 million against a total company investment plan of EUR 557 million to be completed by 2028 (with a further EUR 573 million potential second phase). The agreement includes commitments on air-pollution reduction, landfill remediation, renewable energy procurement via Umbria's hydroelectric concessions, and workforce retention/stabilisation.

Mediocredito Centrale (MCC), the Italian state-owned bank controlled by Invitalia (Italian Ministry of Economy and Finance), signed a EUR 10 million loan with Coopservice, a facility-management cooperative group employing over 20,000 people across Italy and nine other countries. The financing supports working capital tied to Coopservice's innovation, environmental-sustainability, and transparency objectives, with MCC citing particular attention to Southern Italy, where the group employs over 3,200 workers. The deal channels state-bank credit to a domestic services group rather than financing a specific capital project.

Italy's Decreto-Legge 25 giugno 2024 n. 84, converted with amendments into Legge 8 agosto 2024 n. 115 (Gazzetta Ufficiale n. 189 of 13 August 2024, in force 14 August 2024), is Italy's national implementing instrument for Regulation (EU) 2024/1252 (the EU Critical Raw Materials Act). It establishes a MIMIT-led national governance framework for strategic CRM projects spanning extraction, transformation, and recycling; creates a mandatory National Register of strategic companies and value chains with annual reporting on strategic-material import/export flows; divides permitting competence between MASE (extraction/recycling, max 18/10 months) and MIMIT (transformation, max 10 months); and designates INVITALIA and CDP as financing windows for Italian strategic-CRM projects seeking EU Strategic Project status under CRMA Article 6.

Law No. 2 of 11 January 2024 (Gazzetta Ufficiale Serie Generale n. 10 of 13 January 2024, in force 14 January 2024) converts with amendments Decreto-Legge 15 November 2023, n. 161 ("Disposizioni urgenti per il «Piano Mattei» per lo sviluppo in Stati del Continente africano") into permanent law. The statute establishes Italy's first formal Africa-policy framework: a four-year strategic plan adopted by Presidential Decree (subject to parliamentary opinion), a Steering Committee ("Cabina di Regia") at Palazzo Chigi chaired by the Prime Minister, and a Mission Structure inside the Presidency to coordinate implementation. The Plan organises intervention along five thematic pillars (education/training, health, agriculture, water, energy / climate-energy nexus) across an initial nine pilot countries — Algeria, Côte d'Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, Mozambique, Republic of Congo, and Tunisia — with an announced ~EUR 5.5bn envelope drawn primarily from the Italian Climate Fund (~EUR 3bn) and pre-existing development-cooperation resources (~EUR 2.5bn). Positions Italy as a transit corridor and industrial gateway between African resources and EU industry, layering onto the EU Global Gateway / Critical Raw Materials Act perimeter.

Decree-Law No. 104 of 10 August 2023 ("Decreto Asset" / Omnibus Decree, GU n.186 of 10 Aug 2023, in force 11 Aug 2023) was converted with amendments into Law No. 136 of 9 October 2023 (GU n.236 of 9 Oct 2023). The conversion law materially expanded Italy's "Golden Power" foreign-direct-investment screening regime (DL 21/2012). Two key extensions: (i) intra-group transactions involving entities outside the EU are no longer exempt from the exercise of special powers — only the prior notification carve-out was preserved; (ii) acts, resolutions and operations concerning intellectual-property rights in artificial intelligence, semiconductor production, cybersecurity, aerospace, energy storage, quantum and nuclear technologies, and food production technologies fall within scope when one or more counter-parties sit outside the EU. The Prime Minister also obtained an explicit veto power over transactions creating "exceptional situations" not already covered by sectoral or EU prudential / merger rules, including those touching qualifying holdings in the financial sector.

Decreto-Legge 15 marzo 2012 n. 21 (GU n. 63 of 15 March 2012), converted with amendments into Legge 11 maggio 2012 n. 56 (GU n. 111 of 14 May 2012), establishes Italy's "Golden Power" special-powers regime — the foundational statute authorising the Italian Government to impose conditions on, veto, or prescribe remedies for corporate transactions in strategic sectors. The decree marked Italy's transition from a golden-share model (applicable only to privatised companies) to a sector-wide golden-power model applicable to any company carrying out activities of strategic relevance. Administered by the Presidenza del Consiglio dei Ministri (DICA), the regime has been progressively extended from its original defence + national-security + energy/transport/ communications scope to cover 5G, cloud, critical-raw-materials, financial-credit-insurance, agri-food, healthcare, media, space, and AI through a series of amending decrees from 2019 to 2026.