Global Indicators of Regulatory Governance

The new Regulation (Art. 4) stipulates that each Ministry is required to prepare a List of legislative/regulatory initiatives to be adopted in the next semester. The List may contain references to the policy area, the description of scope and objectives, planned RIAs and planned stakeholder consultations. It is presented to the Presidency of the Council of Ministers (particularly to the Department for Legal and Legislative affairs), scrutinized by the Department, presented to the State Secretary (political authority in charge of the rulemaking of the Government) and published on the websites of ministries and the government.

These plans are available on the Government website and competent Ministry website.

Administrations officially communicate to the Presidency of the Council of Ministers the list of the Acts they intend to draft and this list is published on the Government’s website (New Regulation, Art. 4). Each draft that is approved by the Council of Ministers that can be at a preliminary stage or at the final stage is published on the Government’s website, before its entry into force.

http://www.governo.it/provvedimenti

http://www.governo.it/i-ministeri-0

Art. 16 of the New Regulation states that Administrations in charge of the regulatory proposals carry out appropriate consultations both in the impact assessment process and in the ex-post evaluation of regulations. Prior to the New Regulation, consultations were part of RIA process, even if not mandatory.

www.governo.it

http://www.dt.tesoro.it/it/consultazioni_pubbliche/

Art. 16 of the New Regulation states that selection of relevant stakeholders should be made according to the most involved interests in a certain policy area.

In general, results are made available on the website of the relevant Ministry or Regulator. The received comments are available to the public unless otherwise stated by the authors and for privacy-related reasons. (Arts. 17 and 18 of the New Regulation).

Art. 16 of the New Regulation states that in the RIA and ex post evaluations processes, the competent Administration carries out consultations with relevant stakeholders. Administrations are free to choose the methodology (general public or selected groups or stakeholders), according to the scope and extent of the new intervention or policy area to be revised.

Ministries and regulators report on consultations within ex ante and ex post evaluation process, feeding results into the RIA report which is attached to the individual draft text before Council of Ministers' adoption. RIA report and ex post evaluation report have a section dedicated to the consultations they have carried out.

The government publishes all received contributions on the relevant websites, i.e. on the website of the relevant Ministry that carried out the consultation. Moreover, the RIA report communicates the results of stakeholder consultation in a dedicated section. Finally, the annual report on RIA, ex-post evaluation and consultation provides information about results, number of consultations carried out and the methodologies used.

http://http://www.minambiente.it/

Former regulation no. 170 of 2008 is now replaced by the New Regulation of September 15, 2017 that requires that a section of the RIA report (attached to individual draft texts to be adopted by the Government) is dedicated to consultation, including reporting on the results of it.

The new Regulation (DPCM September 15, 2017) on RIA, stakeholder engagement and ex-post evaluation doesn't fix a monetary threshold. There are 4 criteria that determine the "significance" of the expected impacts. Even if one out of the following 4 criteria is met, the proposed regulation must be subjected to a RIA:

1. Relevant impact on competition

2. Relevant impact on public finance

3. High compliance costs

4. High number of subjects involved

This significance varies every time, because for each individual regulation/legislation under preparation, a decision shall be proposed to Department Prime Minister’s Office of Juridical and Legislative Affairs (DAGL) by the individual ministry, and DAGL verifies if the decision (of not carrying out RIA) is founded or not. In other words, on each proposed exemption from RIA, DAGL controls the evidence (a simplified RIA) that demonstrates the low expected impacts of the new legislation/regulation.

The New Regulation sets out the main typologies of impacts (economic, social, environmental, territorial) that must be considered in a RIA process (Art. 8 of the New Regulation). Administrative burdens, effects on competition, on SMEs, gold-plating are explicitly mentioned in Art. 8.

http://www.governo.it/provvedimenti

http://www.governo.it/i-ministeri-0

The competent ministry undertakes RIA, which includes a consultation phase. At the end of the process, an RIA report is prepared and submitted to Department Prime Minister’s Office of Juridical and Legislative Affairs (DAGL) for quality scrutiny, before the adoption by the Council of Ministers of the draft text. The Regulatory Impact Assessment Unit of DAGL receives the RIA report and scrutinizes it, also asking for revisions, additions, more evidence etc. When the RIA report is deemed adequate, the text can be tabled in the Council meeting. After the Council's meeting, RIA report can be published on the Government's website.  

A dedicated section of the RIA report considers alternatives to proposed regulations.

http://www.gazzettaufficiale.it

http://www.normattiva.it

Gazzetta Ufficiale della Repubblica italiana

It can be accessed online and purchased in designated bookstores. (http://www.gazzettaufficiale.it)

The requirement exists since 2009. Recently, the New Regulation (decree of September 15, 2017) foresees regular planning of ex-post evaluations on a two-year basis, the engagement of stakeholders for the identification of regulations to be evaluated and the active participation in the evaluation of EU regulation/directives in the EU regulatory process. Each Ministry has to adopt the Biannual Plan of ex post-evaluation and revision after a public consultation in order to gather feedback on the most burdensome pieces of legislation/regulation, evidence of inconsistencies and overlaps, etc. The Plan is then subject to the scrutiny of the the Regulatory Impact Assessment Unit of the Department Prime Minister’s Office of Juridical and Legislative Affairs (DAGL), and after that adopted with a Ministerial Decree by 31 December.

Regulations are selected according to: relevance of the regulation with respect to the final targets of the policy; socio-economic and scientific-technological changes; problems emerged in the implementation of the regulation; significance of the effects (Art. 12, Para. 7, New Regulation).

Law no. 246 of 2005, Art. 14, Para. 4, implemented by regulation DPCM no. 212 of 2009, is replaced by the New Regulation of Sept 15, 2017.

Individuals can appeal upon a regulation/legislation if the regulation is being enforced against that person or firm's legal representative.

Law 246/2005 and DPCM 212/2009 foresees as obligatory the ex-post evaluation of effects on a biennial basis.