In addition to spending, there is another review which Italy should think about. It is that of international missions, which could also be revised to meet the meager financial resources of the state. The invitation comes fromInternational Affairs Institute (IAI), which today presented in Rome "Choosing to count", the 2014 edition of its annual report on Italian foreign policy.
“There is much to innovate in the decision-making process on which Italy's participation in international missions is based – reads the document -. Today, mission funding is simply established or renewed without a thorough assessment of their political and strategic objectives”, which instead would be “essential in a phase in which a rationalization of commitments in front of limited resources available".
According to current practice, "it is true that Parliament authorizes funding from time to time - he explains to FIRSTonline Stefano Silvestri, former president of the Iai and today director of 'AffarInternazionali' -, but the missions, in reality, are decided by the Government, which then takes them to Parliament for what, in fact, is subsequent ratification. There is never an overall discussion about the nature of the missions or the goals we want to achieve. Sometimes motions are presented, but in progress, when it is now clear that there is no turning back on the merits”.
The problem, in fact, is not only in the method: "All the training and a good part of the operations of the Armed Forces are now paid for by missions – continues Silvestri -, which however means that training and somehow also the structure of the weaponry suffer a distortion. It is evident that only those who go on a mission must train in a certain way, while for the others resources are often lacking. On the armaments front, on the other hand, the systems that go on a mission have spare parts, while in Italy they sometimes remain on the road. Precisely this distortion, up to now, has allowed the armed forces to move forward".
To make the system more efficient, the Institute believes it would be useful to “establish an annual parliamentary session in which the Government is called to illustrate the progress of the missions and of the initiatives to support the peace and stabilization processes”, a practice which would also facilitate “the definition of the guidelines for carrying out the missions”.
There are more than one possible paths, but the Iai has no doubts about the final objective: "In any case, the current practice in which political authorization and financial commitments are confused in the parliamentary discussion and approval of the periodic decrees on the missions developed by the Government".
