The Marche Regional Legislative Assembly (Consiglio Regionale delle Marche) was established in 1970.
Competences (legislative and non-legislative), legal bases and policy areas where the regional parliament is active
Legislative: The Legislative 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 Legislative Assembly is responsible for approving the regional budget. For further information, please refer to the Italian Constitution (available
here (EN)) and the Statute of the Region of Marche, available
here (IT).
Non-legislative: The Legislative Assembly is inter alia responsible for controlling the Regional Government (Article 21 of the Statute of the Region of Marche (see link above)).
List of committees/sub-committees or working groups in the regional parliament
There are six Permanent Committees, namely:
- Committee I inter alia responsible for Institutional Affairs, General Affairs, Municipal Districts, Local Police, Urban and Rural Local Bodies;
- Committee II inter alia responsible for Budget and Finance;
- Committee III inter alia responsible for Labour, Agriculture and Forestry, Hunting and Fishing;
- Committee IV inter alia responsible for Space planning, Ecology and Water Supply;
- Committee V inter alia responsible for Social Security;
- Committee VI inter alia responsible for European Affairs, Development Cooperation and International Solidarity.
For further information, see here (IT).
Committees in charge of scrutinising subsidiarity
Committee VI on European Affairs.
Staff in charge of subsidiarity scrutiny
The secretary of Committee VI on European Affairs is responsible for subsidiarity checks.
Subsidiarity check
Nature (selective/systematic): Selective.
Procedure: EU draft legislation is analyzed by the technical department of the Committee on European Affairs (Committee IV). The Committee decides on the basis of the subject-matter whether to carry out a subsidiarity check or not. The check is undertaken within a period of five to six weeks. The Legislative Assembly approves the comments made by the Committee in a specific resolution.
Cooperation/coordination at the regional level
There is an informal cooperation with the Regional Government on subsidiarity checks. The Regional Government and the Legislative Assembly consider concluding an agreement on subsidiarity in order to consolidate the current cooperation between the two bodies.
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 Legislative 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 Legislative 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
The Legislative Assembly has no experience in terms of cooperation with regional parliaments in other EU Member States. The comments made by the Legislative Assembly on EU draft legislation are always sent to the President of the European Commission and to the President of the Committee of the Regions. Moreover, the Legislative Assembly participates in CALRE (Conference of European Regional Legislative Assemblies).
