The signature of the President of the Republic has also arrived: differentiated autonomy is now law in all respects. The promulgation of Sergio Mattarella However, it does not mark the conclusion of the process of the measure approved on June 19 by the Chamber after the green light given in January by the Senate.
Differentiated autonomy: what are the first steps of the new law, the opposition collects signatures
The text, a battle horse of the League, was voted by the centre-right formations despite doubts and stomach aches demonstrated by several members of Forza Italia and Fratelli d’Italia, particularly in the southern regions. The opposition, firmly against it, has already announced the collection of signatures necessary to promote the abrogative referendum: and yet, not only in the North, a few years ago the Democratic Party and the 5 Star Movement supported the requests for the transfer of certain matters presented by some regions including Lombardy, Veneto and Emilia Romagna.
The lawsigned by Minister Roberto Calderoli, introduces the possibility for individual territories to ask the Government to devolve the power to legislate on twenty matters on which the competence between the State and the regions is now “concurrent” and on the management of three others of those under the exclusive competence of Rome, including education.
Differentiated autonomy: what are the first steps of the new law, what are the “lep” and why are they important
Before submitting their applications, however, they will have to: wait for the Government to set the “lep“that is to say the essential levels of performancewith which it will try to ensure that in every corner of Italy citizens are provided with services of the same level of quality. The operation is far from simple, so much so that the law grants the executive two years to complete it.: and stick will be fundamental also to define the resources that the State will have to pay to the individual regions for each transferred material which overall could weigh 170 billion euros.
Differentiated autonomy: what are the first steps of the new law, what happens after the lep
Once this phase is concluded, each region will be able to send the Government the list of requested subjects and begin negotiations. in which it will have to demonstrate to the ministries concerned that it is capable of managing the new skills and guaranteeing citizens the performance levels established by the State. The agreement reached at the end of the discussions will have to pass the scrutiny of the Unified Conference composed of representatives of regions, provinces and municipalities and that of the parliamentary commissions before being signed by the Council of Ministers. Each procedure will last for several months: to speed up the process, individual territories could propose now the transfer of some of the nine subjects that do not require the completion of the LEP, including civil protection, supplementary pensions, foreign trade and environmental protection.
«I urged the regions not to ask for all 23 subjects at once – Calderoli stated a few weeks ago during a meeting in Monza – the Government will examine the requests one by one: we will proceed with caution. We will carefully evaluate the capacity of each entity to acquire very complex functions: it is called differentiated because there are so many differences between the territories».
