Il Tar of Lazio yesterday rejected the first of three appeals on the alleged unconstitutionality of the reform of cooperative banks. In particular, it concerns the appeal filed in recent months by Adusbef and Consumers Association against the regulation of the Bank of Italy which implements the reform.
The consumer associations asked for the judgment to be referred to the Constitutional Court, arguing that downstream of the decree there is a law contrary to the Fundamental Charter, i.e. the government provision which obliges cooperative banks to turn into spas by the end of 2016. The advanced motivation is related to the use of the decree-law in a situation in which the conditions of "necessity and urgency" would be lacking, as prescribed by the Constitution for the use of this legislative instrument.
On the other hand, in recent years the Italian governments have made massive use of decrees, so if this principle passes, the constitutionality of many laws now in force could be challenged. Furthermore, the recent decree on cooperative credit banks could also be challenged.
“For the reasons that will be set out in the motivation – reads the operative part of the sentence – the Regional Administrative Court for Lazio (section Three) declares the appeal in the epigraph inadmissible as regards the appeal brought by Adusbef and Federconsumatori; rejects the appeal in the epigraph as regards the appeal brought by the appellants as shareholders of Banca Popolare di Milano”.
As for the two more appeals on which the Tar has yet to express itself, the first was presented by a group of small shareholders of popular banks, the second by some shareholders of Ubi and other popular ones led by Piero Lonardi, who contests in particular the regulation of the Bank of Italy which prohibits the establishment of a holding company controlled by shareholders in cooperative form which holds the majority in spa banks. Last October, the Regional Administrative Court had rejected the request for suspension of this last appeal.
