The Regional Council of Aosta Valley (Consiglio Regionale della Vallee d’Aosta – Conseil de la Vallée d’Aoste) was established by Constitutional Act No. 4 of 26 February 1948 containing the Aosta Valley Special Statute, available here
(IT).
Number of Members of Parliament
35
Length of the parliamentary mandate
Five years.
Mode of selection of the Members of Parliament
Direct election. For further information, see Regional Act No. 3 of 12 January 1993, available here (IT).
Population included in the constituency of the regional parliament
128.820 inhabitants (as of April 2012).
- 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 Aosta Valley is one of the five Italian regions having special status. Articles 2 and 3 of the Aosta Valley Special Statute, adopted with Constitutional Law No 4 of 26 February 1948 (see link above), identify the areas which fall within the region's exclusive and shared legislative powers respectively.
The Valle d'Aosta region has exclusive legislative powers in the following areas (Article 2):
- organisation of the region's offices and services and legal and economic status of staff;
- organisation of local authorities and related constituencies;
- urban and rural local police;
- agriculture and forestry, livestock breeding, flora and fauna;
- small-scale land reclamation and agricultural and land improvement work;
- public works and roads of regional interest;
- urban development, development plans for tourist areas;
- transport on local bus routes and cableways;
- mineral and spa water;
- hunting and fisheries;
- public water for irrigation and household use;
- development of the Valley's specialties;
- public access, farm and forestry communities, organisation of agricultural land ownership;
- craft trades;
- hotel industry, tourism and environmental conservation;
- technical and vocational education;
- libraries and museums owned by local authorities;
- fairs and markets;
- organisation of guides, ski schools and mountain porters;
- road names;
- firefighting service
The Aosta Valley Region has the legislative power to integrate and implement the laws of the Republic (shared powers) in the following areas (Article 3):
- trade and industry;
- establishment of local credit institutions;
- compulsory purchase in the public interest for non-state works;
- regulation of the use of public water for hydroelectric power;
- regulation of mining;
- regional and local authority finances;
- infant- primary- and middle-school education;
- welfare and social security;
- public charities and assistance;
- health and sanitation, hospital care and vaccinations;
- antiques and fine arts;
- food supply;
- running of public services.
As a result of the 2001 constitutional reform (Constitutional Act no 3/2001), which extended the areas in which the Italian regions hold concurrent legislative competence and which gave the regions greater legislative autonomy in other fields, the State holds (exclusive or concurrent) legislative powers only in expressly defined areas. The regions have legislative powers in all other areas (exclusive-residual power). The reform also applies to the ‘special regions’ (regioni a statuto speciale), inasmuch as it extends their autonomy until the adjustment of the special statutes (which has not yet taken place).
Non-legislative:
The main non-legislative responsibilities of the regional parliament are as follows:
- The Regional Council is responsible for the approval of general and sectorial plans and programmes for economic and financial measures, regional planning policy, buying and selling of property, issuing and taking-out of loans, etc.
- The Council elects the President of the Region, appoints the Members of the Regional Government, and can adopt a motion of no confidence with regard to the President of the Region and individual Government Members (see Regional Act No. 21 of 7 August 2007).
- The Members of the Regional Council control and steer the work of the Regional Government through monitoring activities (such as questions, questions for immediate answer, interpellations, motions) and policy activities (viz. the adoption of as agendas and resolutions).
- The Council appoints regional delegates for the election of the President of the Republic (Article 83 of the Constitution).
List of committees/sub-committees or working groups in the regional parliament
There are five parliamentary Standing Committees:
I - Committee on Institutions and Regional Status;
II - Committee on General Affairs;
III - Committee on Land-use planning;
IV - Committee on Economic Development;
V - Committee on Social Services.
For further information, see here (IT).
Committees in charge of scrutinising subsidiarity
Committee I on Institutions and Regional Status is 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): Currently, the Regional Council does not conduct any subsidiarity check.
Procedure: Currently, the Regional Council does not conduct any subsidiarity check.
Cooperation/coordination at the regional level
See the answer to the previous point.
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 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 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 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 www.parlamentiregionali.it (IT).
Cooperation/coordination at the EU level
The Regional Council maintains close contacts with the various EU institutions through its representation office in Brussels. Moreover, the Regional Council participates in CALRE (Conference of European Regional Legislative Assemblies).
