Nobody talks about it yet social policies will be one of the subjects that will benefit most from the Constitutional Reform, which reattributes legislative power to the State after the 2001 Reform had entirely attributed it to the Regions.
The 2001 amendment had paved the way for a series of appeals from the Regions which, in many cases, forced the State to cancel or modify numerous national initiatives in the field of social policies, preventing the adoption of homogeneous measures throughout the national territory and leaving unchanged if not accentuating territorial disparities that were already a weakness of our country.
In the aftermath of the 2001 constitutional reform, in fact, the Regions challenged almost all the main national initiatives and instruments in the field of social policies. From the Nursery Fund to housing measures for families, from the baby bonus to funds for family policies to those for the disabled and the elderly, up to the appeal against the National Fund for Social Policies (established in 1997).
The reasons for these appeals were linked not only to the amended article 117 of the Constitution (which attributes exclusive legislative competence to the Regions in these matters), but also to article 119, which prevents the State from allocating ad hoc funds aimed at addressing specific " priorities” in matters of regional competence (because they are considered invasive of the financial autonomy of the Regions and an interference in the exercise of their functions). The State can, of course, give the Regions additional financial resources, but in a completely independent way from any specific use or priority defined at the national level in matters of regional competence. Only the Regions can define to whom, what and how much to give and based on what criteria.
On the basis of these principles, the Court accepted many of the appeals of the Regions on social policies.
A concrete example that gives an idea of the implications of that Reform (and, conversely, of the potential benefits of the new Constitutional Reform), is represented by the sentence of the Constitutional Court n. 423 of 2004.
That sentence deals with various appeals from two Regions which challenged rules which, in refinancing the National Fund for social policies, gave indications on the use of resources and the priorities to be addressed, such as, for example, the rule according to which at least 10% of resources should go "to support policies in favor of newly established families, in particular for the purchase of first homes and to support the birth rate", or as the law which indicated as a priority the "financing of policies in favor of families". And the provision establishing state co-financing for the establishment of an income of last resort was also challenged. All three of these provisions have been declared unconstitutional.
Other sentences, inspired by the same principles, have led the Constitutional Court to declare the constitutional illegitimacy of provisions with which new funds were established linked to certain social policies, such as the nursery school fund (sentence 370 of 2003), the rotation for the financing of employers who provide nursery or micro-nursery services (judgment 320 of 2004), as well as the Fund aimed at the establishment of guarantees on the repayment of fiduciary loans in favor of capable and deserving students (judgment no. 308 of 2004). It is perhaps worth remembering - even if they do not concern social policies - that again on these principles the National Fund for the support of the planning of public works of the Regions and local bodies, the National Fund for the construction of infrastructures of local interest, the Fund for the urban redevelopment of municipalities, the Fund for "the construction of new sports facilities or the renovation of existing ones", and others.
With some sentences the Court has adjusted the shot a bit, and, referring to paragraph 5 of article 119 (which gives the State the possibility to carry out special financial interventions "in favor of certain Municipalities, Provinces, Metropolitan Cities and Regions" and only for particular purposes), has created a certain margin of action for the national legislator - provided that the measures introduced are linked to additional resources, to non-ordinary functions or projects, and intended only for some municipalities or provinces (where they are intended for the Regions these will define the internal distribution criteria).
Outside of this margin, the only way to be able to channel resources towards certain social policies is to go through the agreements with the Unified State-Regions Conference: a process which often proves to be long and which not all Regions are able to implement in the expected times and ways.
A significant example is the agreement reached in September 2007 for the creation of an extraordinary three-year plan for the development of socio-educational services for early childhood, for which the budget law approved in December 2006 had set aside around half a billion euros: the most important intervention in the field of childcare services in recent years
The problem is that some Regions have taken years to complete all the administrative and bureaucratic steps necessary to draw up regional programs, tenders, authorization and accreditation procedures, while others have not really been able to plan and use most of the funds available.
Not to mention the difficulties related to the fact that the procedures for the disbursement of state funds, which could not be defined by the state but only by the Unified Conference, have changed continuously, because the various agreements signed over the years have from time to time defined procedures for different delivery.
This meant that, despite the amount of resources allocated and the significant improvements obtained in some regions, territorial differences remained almost unchanged and there were little improvements where there was more need.
It is clear that the current constitutional system has weakened and in some cases blocked or delayed many national initiatives in the field of social policies.
With the new Constitutional Reform, not only will the legislative competence of the State be strengthened, which will be able to define national plans with greater detail and accuracy (without affecting the organizational autonomy of the Regions, which remain responsible for the planning and organization of health and social services), but it will also be able to intervene more vigorously against the defaulting Local Authorities.
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