The agreement signed between the State and three Regions with ordinary statute (Lombardy, Veneto and Emilia Romagna) provides for the granting of greater autonomy on five matters (Health, Environment, Education, Labor and Relations with the EU). There is talk of variable autonomy for the individual Regions (other Regions are preparing to ask for a similar confrontation with the Government), and of a completion of the agreement in the next legislature, through a possible "law on autonomy".
After the failure of the referendum of 4 December which called for a re-centralization of some legislative powers, the pendulum has once again swung towards the Regions. However, in order not to repeat the mistakes of the recent past regarding federalism without rules, it is appropriate to rethink the relationship between the State and the Regions starting from many policies which have been the subject of national reforms in the last three years and which now must find an application in concert with regional competences.
First of all, the law on the fight against poverty: Italy has finally adopted a universal measure against poverty - a cash check accompanied by services for inclusion - which in July 2018 should reach 700 families and almost 2.5 million of individuals. This measure inevitably crosses with regional and local measures and competences, which have similar objectives, and will be all the more effective if the Regions pose the problem of making synergistic and non-competitive policies with respect to the state ones.
In fact, the latter inevitably constitute only a starting point both as regards the audience and as regards the benefit of the cheque. Some Regions have put their policies into synergy by expanding the audience or expanding the benefit and establishing single forms for requests for assistance in the event of poverty. Other Regions or other Municipalities, on the other hand, proceed along different paths from the national ones, dispersing the measures on several fronts and confusing the citizens.
A second example concerns active labor policies: also in this case, after twenty years of discussion on the need to relocate workers rather than condemning them to layoffs, Italy finally has a national agency for active policies and a unique instrument such as the redeployment allowance. After four months of subsidy, all the unemployed are entitled to an additional service in the form of a relocation allowance which will be paid (only after relocation) to the public-private intermediary who arranged for them to find a job.
Even the instrument of the relocation allowance intersects with numerous and different active regional policies. Also in this case the attitude of the Regions can be antagonistic or synergistic: if the Regions position themselves in a complementary manner, they in fact manage to make state policies much more incisive and effective.
All the more reason this year in which the redeployment allowance can also be used in company crises to help layoffs find a new job. As is known, the management of active labor policies and company crises is a regional competence.
For some years now there has been a national reference framework, an instrument and fully operational funding, but management is in the hands of the Regions and a minimum common denominator can be significantly improved in the hands of Regions capable of "building" on a state. Finally, the youth training policies, among which the attempt in recent years to introduce a dual system of apprenticeship and ITS (Higher Technical Institutes) also in Italy stands out.
The apprenticeship (professionalizing) in Italy tends to be a job placement contract separate from school, while in other countries it is a dual contract that begins when the children are still at school. A recent state law has substantially shifted resources from professionalizing apprenticeship to dual apprenticeship, first in terms of experimentation now fully operational.
Another regulation has strengthened the ITS which today number only 80 and have about 8000 students in charge, but constitute our embryo of professionalizing university. With post high school diploma courses they prepare young people for particular trades with a well-defined demand from the companies themselves that finance the courses through the ITS foundations. Also in this case the collaboration between the State and the Regions is essential to start a more general reform of the Italian secondary and tertiary education system, which can improve the correspondence between the training offer and the job demand.
Only if the Regions are able to implement the dual apprenticeship system (to date only 8 Regions out of 20 have done so) and to develop the ITS system (which are of regional competence), will Italy as a whole have the possibility to develop a reform project in the training system such as to be able to approach the standards of other countries.
°°° The author is an economic adviser to the Presidency of the Council
