UPI Lazio, conference held on the existence of a reform of the Provinces

President Romoli declares that the Provinces must return to the center of Italy’s administrative life

Exactly ten years after the approval of the Delrio Law, we need to take a serious assessment to understand what didn’t work and why it is necessary for the Provinces to return to the center of the political and administrative life of the country. This was precisely the central theme of the conference “The need for a reform of the Provinces” which took place yesterday morning at the University of Cassino and Southern Lazio.

The event, organized by the Union of the Provinces of Italy (UPI) Lazio, was attended by Francesco Scalia (Professor of Administrative Law at the University of Cassino), Marzia De Donno (Professor of Administrative Law at the University of Ferrara), Enrico Carloni (Professor of Administrative Law at the University of Perugia), Alessandro Romoli (President of UPI Lazio and the Province of Viterbo), Gaetano Palombelli (Director of UPI Lazio) and Antonella Di Pucchio (Provincial Councilor of Frosinone with responsibility for public education) .

The meeting was born in the wake of the fourth monitoring report on the implementation of the European Charter of Local Self-Government of February 2024, which recommends that Italy review the regulation of the Provinces, providing these bodies with certain functions, adequate resources and the return to elections directly from the government bodies.

Following the Delrio reform of 2014, which transformed the Provinces into second-level bodies, Italy is in fact still very far from satisfying the requirements set by the Council of Europe regarding local authorities and autonomies. Hence the need for an organic reform that once again attributes competences, resources and dignity to the Provinces which are bodies provided for by the Italian Constitution and which should carry out a fundamental task of connecting the Municipalities and the Regions.

But the need for a reform of the Provinces also arises from objective reality: far from bringing about the public spending savings much feared in 2014, the Delrio law did nothing but block the administrative life of the country by weakening bodies of extraordinary importance. The cutting of resources and personnel to the Provinces, with the consequent passing of many of their functions into the hands of the Regions, has only led to disservices for citizens and the territory. After all, how can roads be asphalted, just to give a concrete example, if there is no money to contract the works? Just as it is a fact that the Delrio law has taken away space from Italian democracy, since at present citizens cannot elect their own provincial representatives.

“Despite the many difficulties caused by the Delrio Law, the Provinces continue to play a fundamental role in the administrative life of local communities – commented Alessandro Romoli, President of UPI Lazio and of the Province of Viterbo during the conference – but these bodies must be put in the conditions to operate to the best of their ability and the reform of the Provinces becomes more and more urgent every day. 10 years after Delrio, the entire Italian political scene agrees in expressing a negative opinion towards that law.

The Provinces must therefore return to the center of Italy’s administrative life because they are fundamental for the citizen and because the Constitution itself provides for it. And the Constitution, as President Mattarella said well at the UPI national assembly which took place last October in L’Aquila, must be implemented”.