An about-face, the Growth decree returns to the Commission in the Chamber. The draft law converting the decree had arrived in the hearing in Montecitorio and the government had already announced its intention to trust on Wednesday evening, vote on Thursday and approve it in first reading on Friday and then go to the Senate where the text must be converted within June 29 or expires.
But no, the provision - which in the meantime has expanded dramatically to become an omnibus decree - returns to the Budget and Finance commissions for a long series of corrections defined as "technical". These also include the suppression of the amendment which transfers ownership and management of the funds for development and cohesion arriving from the EU for the 2012-27 programming period to the Regions. The latest clash between the two government partners took place on this amendment, approved surprisingly on a proposal from the League and evidently discovered late by the pentastellati.
Barbara Lezzi, M5S minister for the South who receives 80% of the development and cohesion funds, saw herself depleted of an important "asset" of her ministry. And she put her foot down. The amendment "will never be voted on by the southern MPs of the M5s". More: “It is an act – she added – of total impropriety. Whoever presented it, Lega or non-Lega, will have to apologize and give explanations ”. In any case, the modification will be "corrected through its excerpt".
That's why the Growth decree - which, perhaps, to live up to its name, more than doubled during the parliamentary examination - returns to the committee. In the meantime, the League and the M5S seem to have found an agreement: the elimination of the amendment on the development funds must correspond to the approval of the strengthened autonomies, the workhorse of the League stopped at the stake of pentastellati doubts.
We will therefore see on Thursday whether the do ut des Fondi-Autonomie stands up to the test of facts. It is not, among other things, the only open question, after the tough stance by Arcelor Mittal against the environmental modifications made to the provision which jeopardize the achievement of the contractual objectives. While waiting for the picture to clear up, the Growth decree stops in committee.
