They had taken it into account for a while, but then they saw the appeals to the Constitutional Court and acknowledged that the game of life continues to be played on the reforms. A clash between the center and the periphery with tenders, projects and investments in between. The ministries in charge of regulating the environmental impact procedures have been blocked by Lombardy, Sardinia and Valle d'Aosta.
All three challenged the reform law of the Via arguing that it affects and limits their powers and those of the autonomous provinces. The law (a reform of what already existed) was published on July 6 in the Official Gazette. It cost time and controversy, even though it was a transposition of the European directive 2014/52/EU. The signs of an anti-reform front, however, were received in the State-Regions Conference.
But the government has gone ahead to expedite the thousands of permits pending. Just think of those on drilling, on Ilva, on the expansion of existing sites, on nuclear power and so on. Have the prerogatives of local authorities really been massacred? The Constitutional Court will tell. The point, evidently, is also political and is influenced by autonomist impulses.
In Milan, it is argued that in transposing European legislation, the State has touched powers that the Constitution identifies, however, as regional power. Over the years, however, this autonomy has produced rules that are valid in individual areas, the subject of disputes, delays and construction blockades. It has not been easy for companies and investors to navigate between national and regional laws and derivative regulations.
The July law concerns all the procedures articulated in Vas (strategic environmental assessment), Aia (integrated environmental authorization), Via (environmental impact assessment) specific. Appeals to the Court even dispute the lack of involvement in determining the administrative costs of the authorizations and the introduction of disparities between procedures of state and regional jurisdiction.
In essence, the clash is over eleven rules, deemed unconstitutional on which the Governors had presented amendments which were then not accepted by the government. Italy needs to streamline procedures, if only by virtue of Community principles. On the contrary, the claim of territorial autonomy leaves the responsibility for strategic decisions to figures and organizations far from Rome. The fear that everything is centralized is accompanied by the speed of the proceedings.
Perhaps the new rules should have been better coordinated and done without legal oppositions that freeze initiatives necessary for the development of the country. Also to take advantage of this period in which the economy is recovering. It should make us think that the judges will also have to rule on environmental assessments already started on site and which will now report to the ministries and the central government. What happens to the principle of the proximity of the territory to the citizens, wonders the Lombardy Region?
With the law of July to the Regions - says a note - the exercise of administrative functions remained, being able to intervene only on purely operational aspects. From Trentino comes the dispute over the 120-day "deductible" to adapt the local rules to the national ones. It will not be easy to get out of this stalemate, while the EU already has its rules in place.
