A crisis emerged in early summer between the two countries after France’s newly elected president Emmanuel Macron announced his administration would renegotiate the deal reached in April with the former French government, which gave a majority stake to Italy.
A temporary nationalization of the St Nazaire shipyards was decided by the French state in July, which blocked mostly state-owned Fincantieri’s takeover bid.
In a joint statement early August, the two countries decided to take time to find a ‘mutually acceptable solution’ and that France would not open STX France to other bids before September 27, when a summit will be held in Lyon attended by president Macron and Italy’s head of government Paolo Gentiloni.
Little information has filtered out about any new proposals, but Le Maire said they should be extended to Franco-Italian cooperation in the field of naval defense.
He also stressed, if there was no agreement, the nationalization would remain in place, but he didn’t believe it was the future of the Saint-Nazaire shipyards.
Copyright © 2024. All rights reserved. Seatrade, a trading name of Informa Markets (UK) Limited. Add Seatrade Cruise News to your Google News feed.
