The debate on the amendment to article 81 of the Constitution with the introduction of the obligation of a balanced budget resumes in the chamber, in the Chamber. Immediately after the approval it could be scheduled in the Senate and therefore the measure could have the definitive go-ahead at the beginning of March. The proposed changes affect the budget discipline of the entire aggregate of public administrations, therefore including local entities (regions, provinces, municipalities and metropolitan cities).
Since this is a modification of the Fundamental Charter, the approval procedure established by Article 138 of the Constitution itself is envisaged, whereby the laws revising the Charter and the other constitutional laws "are adopted by each Chamber with two successive resolutions at intervals not less than three months, and are approved by an absolute majority of the members of each Chamber in the second ballot”.
So here is that the measure should not see the light before March. The law provides for the possibility of a popular referendum under certain conditions (requested by one fifth of the members of a Chamber or five hundred thousand electors or five Regional Councils); this possibility is excluded, however, in the event that the law has been approved in the second vote by each of the Chambers with a majority of two thirds of its members.
The bill being examined by the Chamber revolves around the principle that “the State, in compliance with the constraints deriving from the European Union legal system, ensures a balance between the revenues and expenditures of its budget. The balance of the budget is ensured by taking into account the adverse and favorable phases of the economic cycle, providing for preventive and final checks, as well as corrective measures".
However, the work of the parliamentary commissions has introduced exceptions to the break-even, allowing recourse to debt but only "upon the occurrence of exceptional events or a serious economic recession which cannot be tackled with ordinary budgetary decisions". Recourse to debt is authorized with compliant resolutions of the two Chambers, adopted by an absolute majority of the respective members, and must be accompanied by the definition of a repayment path.
