The Constitutional Court has deemed the question of the constitutionality of the entire law on the differentiated autonomy of the ordinary regions to be "unfounded", while considering specific provisions of the same legislative text to be "illegitimate". This, in short, is the outcome of the appeal against the Calderoli Reform presented by the Regions of Sardinia, Puglia, Campania and Tuscany.

Regions with special statutes

Among other concerns, the Constitutional Court has established that the extension of the law, and therefore of Article 116, third paragraph, of the Constitution, to regions with special statutes is unconstitutional, since "instead, in order to obtain greater forms of autonomy, they can resort to the procedures provided for by their special statutes".

Subsidiarity

Furthermore, the distribution of legislative and administrative functions between the State and the Regions "must not correspond to the need for a division of powers between the different segments of the political system", but must occur "in function of the common good of society and the protection of the rights guaranteed by our Constitution". It is, therefore, "the constitutional principle of subsidiarity that regulates the distribution of functions between the State and the regions". The Consulta affirms this again, underlining that Autonomy "must be functional to improving the efficiency of public apparatuses, to ensuring greater political responsibility and to better respond to the expectations and needs of citizens".

The tributes

The judges also identified the unconstitutionality of the "possibility of modifying, by means of an interministerial decree, the rates of the co-participation in the revenue of the state taxes, foreseen to finance the transferred functions, in case of deviation between the spending needs and the trend of the same revenue. On the basis of this provision, the inefficient regions could be rewarded, which - after having obtained from the State the resources aimed at the exercise of the transferred functions - are not able to ensure with those resources the complete fulfillment of the same functions", explains the note of the Consulta on Autonomy.

The leps

Furthermore: the provision that a decree of the President of the Council of Ministers determines the updating of the Essential Levels of Performance (Lep), and the recourse to the determination of the Lep through the Prime Ministerial Decree, are among the aspects of the Autonomy law deemed unconstitutional by the Constitutional Court.

The President of the Region

President Alessandra Todde expressed "full satisfaction because the constitutional judges considered the reasons illustrated in the Sardinian appeal to be well-founded". All the provisions declared unconstitutional are among those challenged by the Sardinia Region, "which has the highest number of accepted grounds for appeal among the appellant regions. This proves that the Sardinian initiative was not specious, nor was it induced by propaganda motivations, but was sincerely animated by the intention of contributing to the restoration of the violated constitutional legality. In particular, the Court reiterates that this law cannot be automatically applied to special Regions such as Sardinia".

Thanks to this ruling, which "writes an important piece of the history of Italian regionalism, we can finally re-establish on more solid foundations the relaunch of a new season of reforms of special and ordinary regionalism, which will see Sardinia at the forefront in the defense and development of the principle of autonomy", reads a note from Villa Devoto.

"As stated several times, Sardinia cannot accept a law that undermines our specialty, that harms us and that represents a threat to the fundamental principle of equality between all citizens. As it was conceived, this is a law that favors the richest Regions to the detriment of equity and national solidarity as well as the constitutional prerogatives that have been recognized through our Statute. Sardinia has fought with all possible tools to defend the Constitution, the rights, equality and dignity of Sardinians and all citizens", said the President of the Sardinia Region, Alessandra Todde.

The void

"It is up to Parliament, in the exercise of its discretion, to fill the gaps resulting from the acceptance of some of the questions raised by the appellants, in compliance with the constitutional principles, so as to ensure the full functionality of the law". This is explained in the note from the Constitutional Court. "The Court remains competent to examine the constitutionality of individual differentiation laws, if they are challenged by appeals in the main by other regions or in an incidental manner".

(Unioneonline/E.Fr.)

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