“The FIM, the CISL, has always been a reforming trade union, which promotes – through information and knowledge – an active and aware citizenship, countering disinformation, populism and ideological fans. Our country needs to unblock itself, to free up jobs and increase investments in research, development, training, active policies, innovation and infrastructure. Discussing the merits of the Reform is an opportunity to re-establish a stronger constitutional culture among workers. This is one of the main objectives of an educator union”. Thus begins the pronouncement for the YES to the referendum on the constitutional reform of the metalworkers of the Cisl, led by the secretary Marco Bentivogli, who explain the reasons for their choice on the merits.
Overcoming the State-Regions conflicts that are paralyzing Italy
With the Reform the innumerable disputes presented to the Constitutional Court will be overcome, resulting from the conflict of competences that had arisen between the State and the Regions with the Reform of Title V (drawn up by the D'Alema Government) which since 2001 had seen the multiplication of eight times of the disputes that blocked urgent and important works, and paralyzed the country.
We believe that, just when our country would have needed common European policies, rights and standards, it has instead gone in the opposite direction, increasing inequalities and paralyzing the state.
Parliament approved the reform on 12 April after a long process that lasted two years and four days, six readings and 173 sittings of Parliament and 5.000 amendments examined. It was voted for by the government majority, and largely by Lega and FI (with the exception of the 5Stelle), who then withdrew their political support. The No and the YES have equal dignity but the consequences change.
From 2006 to 2016, 5 (reform) governments were born in ten years, against the three of Germany and Great Britain. Behind remain the attempts at constitutional reform that began in the 2006s, after the crisis of the historic compromise and the failure of three Bicameral Commissions (Bozzi and De Mita Jotti commissions, Speroni committee, D'Alema commission; centre-right reform rejected by the referendum of 1948; the so-called Violante draft; the Committee set up by President Napolitano; the Commission set up by Prime Minister Enrico Letta; the current Renzi-Boschi reform). We vote on the Constitution, not on the Government and this is not the first reform: from 2012 to 1963 there were fifteen constitutional revision laws. Since 41, the history of the Constitution has been one of maintenance, completion and strengthening, XNUMX articles have been retouched. This is a fact that hardly anyone remembers.
WHAT CHANGES WITH THE CONSTITUTIONAL REFORM?
Active labor policies
For the CISL and the FIM, Work is in first place. It must always be at the center of the Government's action, to overcome obstacles and barriers and increase employment with concrete and homogeneous measures in the country and with more streamlined and effective personal promotion and supply/demand crossing services. From a "competing" State-Regions matter, which has amplified dualisms and disparities, the protection and safety of work becomes the exclusive competence of the State and "active labor policies" are added (largely absent up to now in the Constitution) to facilitate the meeting between supply and demand. As in all other European countries, a National Agency (ANPAL) has been set up, which – with the Reform – must rapidly unify, homogenize and make the network of Employment Centers more efficient today still managed by the Regions (first by the Provinces) with the dual objective to disburse subsidies and encourage beneficiaries to look for work, assisting and accompanying them in their search. Savings to be invested in social safety nets must also be recovered from this restructuring of labor policies.
Infrastructures and large transport networks
To revive work in our country, more modern infrastructures and large efficient transport networks are needed. Until now the competence attributed to both the state and the Regions has produced an overload of acts (often dictated by local pressures) and countless disputes that have blocked many public works.
There are parts of the country, especially in the south, where infrastructure is still too backward and this problem blocks many investors. The Reform attributes to the exclusive competence of the State the legislation on "strategic infrastructures and large transport and navigation networks of national interest and related safety regulations, civil ports and airports, of national and international interest" and the possibility of making more rapid, efficient provisions on the planning and construction of infrastructures. The Regions remain the planning of the regional territory and mobility within it and of the infrastructural endowment and the "promotion" of landscape assets. The Reform will also have to increase the simplification and transparency of administrative action, according to criteria of efficiency and responsibility of administrators, favoring solutions to overcome the dissent of regional administrations on the route of interregional works or on the location of infrastructures of national importance.
IT processes and platforms
Big Data is already a reality with extraordinary potential that we must know how to use. Just think of the extraordinary tool they could be, trivially putting databases online that today do not yet dialogue, for the fight against tax evasion that is eating up point after point of GDP.
With the Reform, the exclusive competence of the State will be assigned in the coordination "of the processes and related IT infrastructures and platforms of the state, regional and local administration". The absence of this function has caused considerable malfunctions, favoring a growing fragmentation of the information systems of our country (for example: the management of the car tax, the electronic health record, the information system of work and employment services, the vocational training etc.) with enormous problems of coordination, interoperability, costs, efficiency of the services offered. This will also have important repercussions for safety, as well as the possibility of creating a database that publishes data on tenders or public spending, or public transport timetables, in Open Data. Currently, the state can only coordinate data, but not data communication and exchange mechanisms. The data will remain in the hands of the administrations that produce them, only one rule of the game changes, for which IT coordination will be possible, for the benefit of all.
Coordination of public finance
We need to overcome the regulatory chaos between the State and the Regions which, in some cases, makes public finance a real jungle in which citizens and businesses find it difficult to extricate themselves and tax evaders have an easy game. We need to reduce waste and duplication. The reform of the art. 117 attributes the "coordination of public finance and the tax system" to the exclusive competence of the State, while today the concurrent competence of the State and the Regions is in force. Furthermore, the new article 119 establishes that the financial and fiscal autonomy of the Regions is expressed through State laws. Furthermore, the reform must lay the foundations for overcoming waste which lurks above all in purchases (the same object costs even ten times more from one region to another), as it raises the principle of standard costs and needs to a constitutional precept. Uncertainty for citizens and businesses about the timing and methods of implementation of the rules must be reduced; investments are favored which are discouraged today by the existence of rules which overlap between levels of government and are unjustifiably different between territories. Our country must become more competitive and able to attract investment, development and create jobs.
Foreign trade
To be more competitive, our country must know how to focus on its strengths, starting with Made in Italy and must free trade from the regulatory constraints that have limited it so far.
Many of the disputes that we are following as FIM increasingly have an international scope and we need a reform that improves the positioning of our companies in the internationalization processes and in global competition.
The reform must bring foreign trade back into the sphere of state competence, overcoming the existing fragmentation and strengthening initiatives to promote Italian products. The principle that the promotion of Made in Italy belongs to the State must pass, and this offers the possibility of better exploiting the advantages of commercial agreements at an international level. The Regions will be able to play their role in this matter, but within shared and, therefore, stronger state initiatives.
Social policies
Thinking of metalworkers and workers in general also means thinking of their families.
Our country needs more homogeneous and structured social policies. The Reform will attribute to the State the exclusive legislative competence on social policies (which today instead fell within the "residual competences" attributed to the exclusive regional competence). On these issues (nursery schools, housing measures for families, baby bonuses, political funds for families, funds for the disabled and the elderly) more detailed and accurate national plans must be defined by intervening on defaulting local authorities (without undermining the autonomy of Regions, which will remain responsible for the planning and organization of health and social services).
Energy
Energy policy must be national and, in our opinion, European. So far, the veto power of Regions and local authorities has produced measurable damages equal to tens of billions of euros, blocked projects essential for the country's energy security and for lowering energy costs and there has been a culpable delay in construction of new energy production poles and important energy transport networks. And for this very reason in Italy there is still no real national Energy Plan. With the Reform, energy must become the exclusive competence of the State in the production, transport and national distribution of energy. It is necessary to reaffirm the clear national interest and investment in energy and to guarantee the continuity and security of the energy supply.
Culture and tourism
Our country for artistic wonders, culture and tourist attractions is second to none. Unfortunately, however, on too many occasions it has not been possible to exploit them in the best way.
We need to focus on culture, a richness at 360 degrees. The reform improves and rationalizes the structure of competences in the field of culture and tourism: it returns to the State the tasks of strategic planning and uniform regulation of these sectors throughout the national territory, however it leaves regional prerogatives intact. The concurrent competence of the State and the Regions in matters of valorisation of cultural heritage is eliminated, attributing it to the State; the protection and enhancement of "landscape assets" is added to the state competences; legislative competence on tourism, which is currently exclusive to the Regions, is re-attributed to the State.
Attachments: Fim Cisl Constitutional Reform Infographic
