Country Profile: Italy

• Author: Naldini, Andrea; Pompili, Marco; Peruccacci, Eleonora
• Pages: 191-197

191

16. COUN TRY PROFI LE: I TALY

Int roduct ion

Italy is a “region alised” country, w here Constitution assigns im portant powers to the

Regions and, in m any policy fields, the Regions and the State hav e a “ shared”

jurisdiction. The Region s and t he St at e can autonomously make laws in these shared

fields, alt hough the responsibility for def ining general principles and coordin at ion is

un der th e co mpe ten ce of t he cent ra l St ate. Se ctor al p olic ies r elev ant t o St at e aid - such

as energy, RTDI and suppor t t o product ive sect ors - are managed t hrough shar ed

com petences; consequent ly, t he St ate has only a coordin atin g role in State aid.

16.1. Sect ion 1 - National r ules for t he evaluation of Stat e aid schem es

16.1 .1 . Obligat ion or lack ther eof to evaluat e

In Italy a general obligation t o evaluat e public policies, or State aid policies, does not

exist , either at nat ional or r egion al level.

How ever, obligations t o monitor and assess specific policies are widespread since t he

end of th e last cent ury at regional and national levels, also as a consequence of t he

coh esion pol icy exp erie nce. These “e valu ati on clause s” have bee n in clud ed i n l egal act s,

gi ving bi rt h t o n ew poli cy i nst rum ent s o r de fini ng a n ew g ove rna nce of e xist ing po licies.

The distribution of t he evaluation clauses did not affect all the policy in strum ents, as it

depended on the will of the leg islators165. The evaluat ion clause, in general, com pels

public adm inist ration responsible for t he intervention t o report r esults t o national or

regional Parliament on an an nual basis. With very few exceptions, im pact evaluat ion,

as def ined in t he GB ER, has nev er bee n ca rri ed out in t he fra mew or k o f t he asse ssme nt s

re qui red by t hese clau ses. The claus es p rod uced , a s a conse que nce, an eff ort t o mon it or

po licie s, inc rea sed ava ila ble inf or ma ti on and im p rov ed acco un tab ili ty bu t di d n ot pr ov id e

eff ectiv e evaluat ions of the socio-economic effects of the p olicy.

Since t he end of the previous century, St at e aid measu res experienced a similar

increase in at tent ion for monitoring and available information, but obligations t o

evaluate w ere nev er set up and, as explained in the next section, n at ional impact

evalu at ions hav e been sporadic an d dependent on occasional decisions.

In the past tw o decades in stitut ionalisation of evaluation also m ade significant

progresses in several policy fields, such as education, university and labour market ,

where specialised Agencies166 h ave to analy se and evaluate t he effects of the public

expenditure.

Finally , in I taly obligations t o ev aluate ESIFs have gr eat consequences, since cohesion

policy co-finances a signif icant part of development policies and impor tant State aid

measures, especially in the Southern reg ions. I t aly is one of t he countries w it h the

hi ghest n um ber of ev aluat io ns i n Eur ope an d im pa ct eval uat ion s ar e r elat ive ly common.

However, t he experience of the 20 07-2013 period demonstr at ed that, w hen European

165 An init iat iv e fo r p rom ot ing ev aluat io n cl auses has been im pl eme nte d b y t he Conf eren ce o f t he Presid ent s

of th e Reg ion, see pr oje ct CAPI RE (htt p: / / ww w. capi re.or g/ ) . I n th e 2 015 -201 9 p eri od arou nd 40 -50 clau ses

hav e bee n in cluded in regi onal acts ever y ye ar, but onl y few in tere sted Stat e aid me asure s.

166 The agencies ar e: I NVALSI for ed ucatio n, ANVUR for hi gher education, I NAPP and ANPAL for labou r

ma rket pol icies.