1 What is the regional autonomy approved by the Chamber on Wednesday 19 June?
It is the law based on the so-called Calderoli bill which will serve as the basis «for the attribution to the Regions with ordinary statute of further forms and particular conditions of autonomy». In essence, the Regions that request it will be able to acquire some of the skills that until now the Constitution assigned to the State. Each Region – together with the new tasks – will receive the “human, instrumental and financial” resources to carry out them.
2 What are the tasks that the Regions will assume once the Autonomy process is completed?
It depends, for each Region, on what skills it will require. According to the Constitution, there are 23 matters that can be entrusted to the Regions. Veneto is the only one that at the time asked for all 23 possible subjects. Of these, 9 can be transferred more quickly because they do not include LEPs, which are one of the crucial issues of the reform.
3 What are the so-called Leps?
These are the «Essential Levels of Performance». For each subject, the State will have to define the minimum levels of services provided uniformly throughout the national territory. And it will obviously have to establish the resources necessary to guarantee them. The concept is the same as the Essential Levels of Assistance (Lea) already in force for many years (the first definition dates back to 2001) in healthcare.
4 What are the 9 subjects that should not be subordinated to the Leps?
The 9 subjects that could theoretically arrive more quickly as they do not require the relevant performance levels are: Organization of justice of the peace; Foreign trade; Professions; Civil protection; Complementary and supplementary social security; Coordination of public finance and the tax system; Savings banks, rural banks, regional credit companies; Regional land and agricultural credit institutions; International relations and with the European Union of Regions.
5 When will autonomy come into force?
The law approved yesterday by the Chamber must be promulgated within 30 days by the President of the Republic, then published in the Official Journal within 15 days of promulgation. At that point, the Regions that request it will open the negotiation. It being understood that the Leps must first be physically defined: the State has 24 months.
6 Did the parliamentary process of Autonomy end with yesterday’s vote?
No. Yesterday the general framework of the law was approved, the perimeter within which all the Regions will move. Then, each Region that wants it will make its own negotiation with the State. At the end, each of the agreements that will be stipulated by each Region will have to return to Parliament for definitive ratification.
7 Since when have we been talking about differentiated autonomy of the Regions?
Autonomy is a historic Northern League battle. But it was made possible by the reform of Title V of the Constitution that the center-left wanted in 2001, in particular of article 116, third paragraph of the Constitution. The reform of the time means that the one based on the Calderoli bill does not require constitutional changes, even if the path is not very simple.
8 Will Autonomy be subjected to a confirmatory referendum?
On the basis of the Constitution, no, as it does not modify the current Charter and is simply an implementation of it. But the Democratic Party, the Green-Left Alliance and Italia Viva immediately announced the collection of signatures necessary to call a popular consultation on what they dubbed the “split-Italy”. Yesterday the yes to the referendum also came from the 5 Star Movement.
