The Regional Council of Umbria (Consiglio Regionale dell'Umbria) was established on 20 July 1970.
Number of Members of Parliament
30 Members, plus the President of the Regional Government.
Length of the parliamentary mandate
Five years.
Mode of selection of the Members of Parliament
The candidate with the largest number of votes is elected President of the Regional Council. Six posts are assigned to the candidates on the same regional list as the President's list. The other 24 seats are allocated on the basis of parallel provincial lists under a proportional system, based on the number of residents in each of Umbria's two provinces. For a Member to be elected, a provincial list must receive at least 3% of the total votes cast in the region, or be linked to regional lists that received more than 5% of total votes. The winner of the election must have at least 60% of the seats in the regional Parliament. If this threshold is not met, seats are assigned to the winning coalition by taking them away from coalitions that did not win until that percentage threshold is met. The losing coalitions are entitled to at least 35% of the seats in the regional council, provided they collectively receive at least 25% of votes cast. In this case, additional seats are assigned until the 35% threshold is met. For further information, see here (IT) and the Statute of the Region of Umbria, available
here (IT).
Population included in the constituency of the regional parliament
906.486 inhabitants (as of 31 December 2010).
- Competences (legislative and non-legislative), legal bases and policy areas where the regional parliament is active
- List of committees/sub-committees or working groups in the regional parliament
- Committees in charge of scrutinising subsidiarity
- Staff in charge of subsidiarity scrutiny
- Subsidiarity check
- Cooperation/coordination at the regional level
- Cooperation/coordination at the central level
- Cooperation/coordination at the cross-regional level
- Cooperation/coordination at the EU level
Competences (legislative and non-legislative), legal bases and policy areas where the regional parliament is active
Legislative: The Regional Council, 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 Council is responsible for approving the regional budget. For further information, please refer to the Italian Constitution (available at
http://www.senato.it/documenti/repository/istituzione/costituzione_inglese.pdf (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. For further information, see the link above.
List of committees/sub-committees or working groups in the regional parliament
The Standing Committees include inter alia the following:
- Committee for Institutional and European Affairs;
- Economic Activities Committee;
- Health and Social Services Committee;
- Legislative Committee.
For further information, see
here (IT).
Committees in charge of scrutinising subsidiarity
Currently, the Standing Committee for Institutional and European Affairs is in charge of scrutinising subsidiarity. However, the Council will establish a specific Committee for European Affairs, which will take over this charge in future.
Staff in charge of subsidiarity scrutiny
There is no staff specifically in charge of subsidiarity scrutiny.
Subsidiarity check
Nature (selective/systematic): N/A.
Procedure: The Regional Council does not currently carry out systematic subsidiarity checks, but a study group is preparing a set of procedural rules to be followed for such checks in future.
Cooperation/coordination at the regional level
There are some informal channels of cooperation with the Regional Government, notably through exchanges of information by several departments within both institutions.
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 Council 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 Council 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 http://www.parlamentiregionali.it (IT).
Cooperation/coordination at the EU level
Participation in CALRE (Conference of European Regional Legislative Assemblies).
