The match ofAutonomy recycling will start soon. Earlier than expected. Probably in the autumn, given the technical times. But it won’t be a simple path and, probably, not even completely linear. Deciding on the subjects to transfer will take time. What will happen in the next few months will be a sort of “stress test” between the central and regional governments. A balance will have to be found between the pressures of the governors and the desire to maintain an important part of the prerogatives in the central administration, and therefore in Rome. Let’s start from the Northern League front. Matteo Salvini defends the project vigorously, and does so with the thesis that the retreat of the Southern regions depends precisely on state centralism. The governor of Veneto, Luca Zaia, and that of Lombardy, Attilio Fontana, have already made it known that as soon as the Calderoli bill is published in the Official Journal, they will ask the government to open the negotiation table for the transfer of the first competences from Rome to Milan and Venice. Of the 23 total that they can request, at the moment they will be able to obtain a maximum of nine. That is, those at the basis of which there is no Lep, an essential level of performance, which must be guaranteed, and therefore financed, also in all the other Regions before it can be transferred. What can they ask then? Matters such as the management of justices of the peace, civil protection, professions, supplementary pensions, foreign trade, the Region’s internal relations with the EU and the coordination of public finances. It’s not a little.
Autonomy, Camilli (Unindustria): «Rome at risk of impoverishment, compensation is needed»
But there is one point that has so far escaped debate. The old autonomist project had been interpreted as a sort of right to obtain the requested materials. The law approved by the Chambers, however, only introduces a right to request matters. Getting them is a whole other matter. Thanks to the amendments wanted by Fratelli d’Italia and Forza Italia, a strong veto power has been assigned to the Prime Minister and, therefore, to Giorgia Meloni.
THE PASSAGE
«In order to protect the legal or economic unity, as well as to guide priority public policies», explains paragraph two of article two of the framework law on autonomy, «the President of the Council of Ministers, also on the proposal of the Minister for regional affairs and autonomies or of the Ministers competent for the subject, it can limit the object of the negotiation to some subjects or areas of subjects identified by the Region in the act of initiative”. Let’s try to clarify. Zaia, Fontana or any other Regional President will be able to ask the government to negotiate, for example, the transfer of responsibilities in the field of foreign trade.
For example, to have the powers to support the exports of their companies to certain markets. But Antonio Tajani, Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, could ask Meloni to remove this matter, or some pieces of it, from the negotiating table. The Prime Minister could also decide it directly, without any particular solicitation.
COORDINATION
The same applies, and is likely to happen, to the coordination of public finances. It is difficult to imagine that a matter which by definition is the responsibility of the Ministry of Economy, could be transferred to some peripheral structure. Or for the justices of the peace, a function currently exercised by the Department of Justice led by Carlo Nordio. To understand how Palazzo Chigi and the ministries will move, it will be necessary to wait for the requests from the Regions. It will still be a while before they arrive. Once the law has been published in the Official Journal, the Regions will have to decide on the request for autonomy to send to the government based on their statutes. The act must then be sent to the President of the Council of Ministers and to the Minister for Regional Affairs and Autonomy who, having acquired within sixty days the evaluation of the ministers responsible for the matter and of the Minister of Economy and Finance possibly for coverage, starts negotiations with the requesting Region. If the opinions do not arrive within the established timeframe, the negotiating table starts anyway. Before the start of the negotiation, the President of the Council of Ministers or the Minister for Regional Affairs and Autonomy delegated by him must inform the Chambers and the Permanent Conference for Relations between the State that the negotiation has started. In short, it is not certain that the Regions can do, to use a poker term, an “all in” and obtain everything they ask for. As mentioned, it will be up to Giorgia Meloni to find a balance between the requests of the Regions and the reasons of the Capital.
© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Read the full article at
The messenger
