The Calabria Regional Assembly (Consiglio Regionale della Calabria) was established in June 1970.
Competences (legislative and non-legislative), legal bases and policy areas where the regional parliament is active
Legislative: The Regional Assembly, like those of the other Italian regions, exercises its legislative competences in accordance with the provisions of Article 117 of the Italian Constitution. More specifically, Article 117(2) specifies legislative matters that are exclusive to the state, such as immigration, defense, citizenship and social security; Article 117(3) lays down legislative matters that are concurrent between the state and the regions, such as scientific research, health protection, land-use planning and communications; whilst Article 117(4) specifies legislative matters that are, on a residual basis, exclusive to the regions and therefore concern all those matters not covered by the first two paragraphs of Article 117. Moreover, the Regional Assembly is responsible for approving the budget. For further information, please refer to the Italian Constitution (available here (EN)) and the Statute of the Region of Calabria, available
here (IT).
Non-legislative: The Regional Assembly is inter alia responsible for controlling the Regional Government (Article 37 of the Statute of the Region of Calabria) and for appointing the delegates of the Region for the election of the President of the Republic (Article 16 of the Statute of Calabria). For further information, see the Statute of the Region of Calabria (link above).
List of committees/sub-committees or working groups in the regional parliament
The Regional Assembly has established Standing Committees on:
- Institutions, General Affairs, Reforms and Decentralization;
- Budget, Economic Planning and Production Activities, European Union Affairs and Foreign Relations;
- Social, Health, Cultural and Educational Activities;
- Structure and Land Use - Protection of the Environment.
For further information, see
here (IT).
Committees in charge of scrutinising subsidiarity
The Committee on Budget, Economic Planning and Production Activities, European Union Affairs and Foreign Relations is in charge of scrutinising subsidiarity.
Staff in charge of subsidiarity scrutiny
Four employees (one manager, one officer, one instructor and one IT expert) are responsible for monitoring compliance with the subsidiarity principle.
Subsidiarity check
Nature (selective/systematic): Systematic.
Procedure: The subsidiarity check is organized by Regional Act No. 3/2007 (available here (IT)). The Standing Committee on Budget, Economic Planning and Production Activities, European Union Affairs and Foreign Relations examines the Annual Legislative Program of the European Commission and identifies the areas of interest to it. It examines European draft legislation on a fortnightly basis with the support of the Regional Assembly's administrative structures. The European draft legislation is sent to the Regional Assembly by the Conference of Presidents of the Legislative Assemblies of the Regions and the Autonomous Provinces. After its examination, the Committee on Budget, Economic Planning and Production Activities, European Union Affairs and Foreign Relations takes a final decision as to the conformity of EU draft legislation with the subsidiarity principle.
Cooperation/coordination at the regional level
Regional Act No. 3/2007 indicates that the Regional Government and the Regional Assembly should reach an agreement to express a common position on European issues. Nevertheless, the Regional Act does not prescribe the procedure for doing so. In practice, the Committee on Budget, Economic Planning and Production Activities, European Union Affairs and Foreign Relations engages in consultation with institutional (municipalities, provinces, local authorities), economic (agricultural, industrial, crafts, services and trade associations) and social (associations, movements, foundations) partners and prepares a document that is approved, after consulting the department responsible for the subject-area. It adopts a resolution (decision) according to Article 87 of the rules of procedure and informs the remainder of the Regional Assembly and its President, as well as the President of the Regional Government.
A new model of cooperation involving all regional departments and the legislative services of both the Regional Government and the Regional Assembly will be introduced upon completion of a training course (Formez project) called 'Actions in support of Community policies'.
Cooperation/coordination at the central level
The mechanism for forwarding EU legislative proposals is laid down at federal level and has two separate channels for regional executives and assemblies.
Twice a week, the Regional Assembly receives EU laws, EU draft legislative acts and preparatory acts from the Prime Minister's office via the europ@ database system, through the Conference of Presidents of the Legislative Assemblies of the Regions and the Autonomous Provinces. This forwarding mechanism was established by an agreement signed on 20 July 2009 between the Central Government and the Conference of Presidents of the Legislative Assemblies of the Regions and the Autonomous Provinces, implementing the provisions of Law No. 11 of 4 February 2005. The europ@ system is part of the Department for Community Policies portal, which can be accessed by institutions in order to make comments and assessments on all EU acts and documents, including those not forwarded via the lists.
As for the relations between national and regional parliaments, there is no regulated procedure for cooperation yet. Nevertheless, a system has recently been introduced by the Senate's 14th Committee for forwarding lists of EU proposals requiring a subsidiarity check via the Conference of the Presidents of the Legislative Assemblies of the Regions and the Autonomous Provinces with a detailed schedule of the work of the parliamentary committees involved in the procedure.
The comments made by regional parliaments are sent to the committees in the Italian Parliament that are responsible for the subject-matter concerned by the European draft legislation and for European Affairs. These committees draft an opinion, which may refer to the position adopted by the regions.
Cooperation/coordination at the cross-regional level
The Regional Assembly cooperates with other regional parliaments via the Conference of Presidents of the Legislative Assemblies of the Regions and Autonomous Provinces, a body that promotes the institutional role of the assemblies of the regions and autonomous provinces, and acts as a hub for coordination and exchange of experiences regarding the legislative assemblies' areas of interest. The cooperation exists both on a technical level - by participating in the working group on European affairs - and on a political level - through the participation of one Member of Parliament per regional parliament in the coordinating Committee of Chairs of European Affairs Committees. For further information, see here (IT).
Cooperation/coordination at the EU level
There is no cooperation/coordination with regional parliaments in other Member States. The Regional Assembly participates in CALRE (Conference of European Regional Legislative Assemblies).