The Piedmont Regional Assembly (Consiglio Regionale del Piemonte) was established in 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 regional budget. For further information, please refer to the Italian Constitution (available
here (EN)).
Non-legislative: The region's non-legislative competences are exercised on the basis of Article 117(6) (regulatory powers) and Article 118 (administrative functions) of the Italian Constitution. The Regional Assembly is notably in charge of controlling the Regional Government. For further information, see the Italian Constitution (see link above).
List of committees/sub-committees or working groups in the regional parliament
There are six Legislative Standing Committees:
- Committee I: planning; budget; heritage; organisation and personnel, e-government; Community policies; instrumental bodies and regional participation, institutional affairs, federalism; local authorities; equal opportunities; local police; monitoring under Article 34 of the Statute;
- Committee II: land-use planning; urban planning; residential construction; transport and road systems; expropriations; public works; navigation; communications;
- Committee III: economy; industry: trade; agriculture; crafts; mountains; forests; fairs and markets; tourism; mineral and thermal waters; hunting and fishing; vocational training; energy; quarries and peat extraction; migration;
- Committee V: environmental protection and impact; water resources; pollution; industrial waste and waste treatment; hydro-geological management; civil protection; parks and protected areas;
- Committee VI: culture and entertainment; cultural assets; museums and libraries; education and school construction; universities, research; youth policies; sport and leisure; cooperation and solidarity; linguistic minorities.
For further information, see here (IT).
Committees in charge of scrutinising subsidiarity
There is no committee specifically in charge of scrutinising subsidiarity.
Staff in charge of subsidiarity scrutiny
There is no staff specifically in charge of scrutinising subsidiarity.
Subsidiarity check
Nature (selective/systematic): N/A.
Procedure: N/A.
Cooperation/coordination at the regional level
N/A.
Cooperation/coordination at the central level
The mechanism for forwarding EU legislative proposals is laid down at the central 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 Legislative Assemblies of the Regions and 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 Legislative Assemblies of the Regions and 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 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).
Moreover, the Regional Assembly is a founder of the CAPIRe (Controllo delle Assemblee sulle Politiche e gli Interventi Regionali) project, together with Emilia Romagna, Lombardy and Tuscany. This project aims to improve the efficiency of the regional assemblies' monitoring role, by adopting new legislative and organisational instruments. Since March 2006, the project has been promoted and directly funded by the Conference of Presidents of the Legislative Assemblies of the Regions and Autonomous Provinces of Italy. For further information, see here (IT).
Cooperation/coordination at the EU level
The Regional Assembly is:
-
member of CALRE (Conference of European Regional Legislative Assemblies);
- member of the Italian Association for the Council of European Municipalities and Regions (CEMR);
- member of UCLG (United Cities and Local Governments).
Moreover, the Regional Assembly has contacts with the Committee of the Regions, through its first vice-president, Mercedes BRESSO, member of the Piedmont Regional Assembly, as well as with Members of the European Parliament.
