A hypothetical entry of the Spanish State ArcelorMittal It would be protected by the Constitution, but this does not mean that the intervention was a bed of roses from a legal and political perspective, quite the opposite. This is the main conclusion of Administrative Law experts consulted by this newspaper. Proposals made by some political actors in Asturias (in particular, the CC OO and UGT unions and Gijón’s PSOE, rejected by Adrián Barbón yesterday) have moved in recent days to guarantee the permanence of the integrated steel industry.
“Theoretically, anything is possible. The option of nationalizing a company is provided for in the Constitution, but most likely there will be reluctance on the part of the European Union, which may regard this intervention as a comparative complaint with other sectors of Europe.” “The economy is going through a crisis situation,” says Leopoldo Tolivar, professor of Administrative Law at the University of Oviedo.
In his opinion, such intervention “would be more appropriate to the development of a specific law, such as the Industrial Code being processed in the Cortes, but from a legal point of view this would not be a peaceful operation at all, it would cause chaos.” “There are too many wars,” warns Tolivar, who believes that such an event “will cause more controversy for independence supporters than the amnesty law.”
Lawyer Javier Junceda agrees with Tolivar that beyond the constitutional framework “there must be a law protecting expropriation, but this must also guarantee that the company can claim compensation.” Moreover, he warns: “The fact that it is a multinational company makes the issue even more complicated: In a company operating in different parts of the world, what part of the business can the State intervene in?” In any case, Junceda reminds that currently “public administrations have the opportunity to withdraw public assistance that a company does not want to apply.”
Alejandro Huergo, also a professor at the University of Oviedo, favors caution, but confirms that “the paradigm that the best industrial policy is non-existent policy is disappearing” and points out that “EU governments are already intervening” in their industries by financially supporting key investments.