THE IMPLEMENTATION OF REFORM
Almost ten years after its adoption, the reform is far from being fully completed. Although some amendments took immediate effect, in particular the new distribution of legislative powers, the new lists of these legislative powers quickly revealed themselves as defective.
They contained gaps that led to conflicts over the distribution of powers, and overlaps between the powers granted to the various spheres of government likewise precipitated conflicts. As a result, the Constitutional Court had to face the fundamental task of re-defining the competencies.8 This often led to the justification of an expanding role for the national government: by (too) often emphasising that “cross-cutting” issues – such as the “determination of the basic level of benefits relating to civil and societal entitlements to be guaranteed throughout the national territory” (article 117, 2).9 – require a predominant role for the national government as the guardian of national interests, the Court on several occasions supported a rather centralistic interpretation of the new distribution of competences.10A second group of reform provisions required further legislation on details, for example, the new financial relations between the layers of government, but the center-right coalition government under Mr Berlusconi elected immediately after the reform entered into force (2001) did not show any interest in completing the constitutional framework inherited from its predecessor. Thus, not until 2003 and 2005 were bylaws finally adopted on the implementation of some amended provisions of the Constitution.11 However, the issue of financial relations remained unresolved until (at least) 2009, as will be discussed below. This delay caused additional confusion and gave rise to more controversy and litigation. In addition, the then government (including the Northern League, which sought to gain more radical results) presented its own, more far-reaching constitutional “counter-reform.” This reform proposal concerning fifty-three articles of the Constitution was finally adopted by the center-right coalition’s majority in Parliament on November 2005.
However, it was prevented from entering into force by a popular vote (61 percent against) in a referendum held in June 2006, just after Mr Berlusconi’s party lost the general elections. His successor, Mr Prodi, started to complete the implementation of the reform of 2001 but was forced to resign after less than two years in power. Finally, another government under Mr Berlusconi was elected in April 2008, with a strong majority in parliament and crucial support from the Northern League, which immediately pushed for what was labelled “fiscal federalism” and in technical terms was nothing less than the implementation of article 119 of the Constitution.However, even the regions themselves have not made the best use of the new opportunities provided by the constitutional reform in 2001: in particular the process of passing new autonomy statutes has been very slow,12 and the new clause in article 116.3 allowing for more differentiation among the ordinary regions has been disregarded.13