The Italian regions in the European Union : Story of an unaccomplished relationship

The role of sub-national entities within the European Union represents one of the more fascinating conundrum of the EU integration process. The aspiration of the EU to build a quasi-federal constitutional space beyond the states seems to clash with the deepest expression of national identity: the presence of local and regional entities. For many years since the beginning of the EU integration process such a tension was dormant: a situation well described by the famous image of the “EU blindness” toward the local dimension. Looking at the Italian case, however, at the beginning of the new century, after a slow and long process, the EU and the regions crossed their paths: on one side the Italian reform of Title V clearly emphasized the role of Regions in the EU affairs; on the other, the Lisbon Treaty finally recognized the key role of sub-national entities in the EU decision making process, providing innovative procedures of participation and information duties and considering them one of the two pillars for the guarantee of democracy in the EU. This chapter aims to critically examine the evolution of the role of Italian regions within the EU, in order to assess the factual realization of the “promise” of the regional participation within the EU decisional processes. To this extent, I will describe the “European path” of Italian regions, from the constitutional framework introduced by the reform, of Title V (and in particular by the new art. 117), to the subsequent legislative acts of implementation of the Regional participation in the so called “ascendant phase” and “descendant phase” of EU law making process (l. no.131/2003, l. no 11/2005 and l. no 234/2012). The analysis will also consider the procedures and mechanisms related to the participation in the EU law making process. A second part will discuss the effectiveness of the Italian model of relations between the regional level and the EU. I will examine the weak and still underdeveloped participation of Italian regional assemblies in the political dialogue and in the EWS mechanism, also in comparative perspective, in order to assess the real weight of the regional participation in the subsidiarity control. The third and final part will discuss in a broader perspective the potential role of subnational entities in enhancing the democratic legitimacy of the EU, also in the light of the multiple tensions the EU is facing.