di Andrea Catani

SOMMARIO: 1. Premessa metodologica. – 2. La sessione di bilancio in sintesi. – 2.1. I provvedimenti collegati. – 3. Il c.d. decreto-legge “fiscale” nell’esperienza della XVIII legislatura. – 3.1. L’iter procedimentale. – 3.2. La giurisprudenza costituzionale in tema di omogeneità del decreto-legge e della legge di conversione. – 3.2.1. La sent. n. 247 del 2019 della Corte costituzionale: sulla definizione di “materia finanziaria”. – 4. Considerazioni conclusive: i profili problematici del decreto-legge fiscale.

This paper analyses the phenomenon of the fiscal decree-law in the Italian legal system. After briefly illustrating the general structure of the national budget session, this study aims at deepening the main aspects related to the fiscal decree-law, which was adopted, from 2016 to 2019, in parallel with the annual budget law. In particular, the attention will focus, on the one hand, on the procedural iter followed by the Government and the Parliament and, on the other hand, on the homogeneity requirement of the decree-law and the conversion law. The objective of this analysis is to underline the institutional and constitutional problems which arise from the adoption of the fiscal decree-law.

di Giacomo Menegus

SOMMARIO: 1. Introduzione. – 2. Il coordinamento delle politiche economiche prima del Semestre europeo. – 3. Gli indirizzi di massima nel quadro del Semestre europeo. – 4. I nodi principali. – 4.1. Questioni di validità. – 4.2. Controllo democratico. – 4.3. Effettività. – 5. Focus Italia. – 6. Conclusioni e prospettive.

The essay aims to analyse the role of broad economic policy guidelines (BEPGs) under Article 121 TFEU within the European Semester. After describing the evolution of the instruments for coordinating economic policies in the EU, from the Seventies until today, the analysis focuses on three major issues concerning economic policy coordination: legitimacy, democracy, and effectiveness. The main finding is that the well-known shortcomings in democratic control over the economic cycles at the European and national level are accompanied by poor implementation of the economic policy recommendations by the Member States. The examination of the Italian case confirms this picture. Despite these issues, economic policy recommendations (notably country-specific recommendations - CSRs) are gaining ever greater importance, especially within the framework of Next Generation EU plan. The conclusion is that, while the effectiveness of policy recommendations may be improved by linking the disbursement of EU funds to Member States compliance with CSRs, as proposed for the so-called ‘Recovery Plan’, stronger democratic accountability implies an enhancement of the involvement of national parliaments in the European Semester.

di Marta Simoncini

SOMMARIO: 1. Introduzione. – 2. La dottrina Meroni e i poteri quasi-normativi delle agenzie europee. – 3. Il caso dell’ESMA. – 3.1. La vigilanza sulle vendite allo scoperto. – 3.2. L’adozione di orientamenti e raccomandazioni. – 3.3. La partecipazione all’attività normativa della Commissione. – 4. Verso un nuovo modello di governance?

The establishment of the European supervisory authorities in the financial markets (ESAs) after the 2008 economic crisis significantly changed not only the supervision of banks, insurance companies and funds, but also the system of European administrative governance. Among the ESAs, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) is a sort of supranational regulator that exercises considerable supervisory powers in the financial markets. Quasi-regulatory powers particularly confer on the Authority a key role in sector-specific regulation. By analysing the case of ESMA, this article aims at investigating how quasi-regulatory powers have contributed to innovating the system of governance by EU agencies. In doing this, it also highlights the problems triggered by the development of a new model of legality in the absence of a general theory framing the exercise of administrative powers with regulatory impact.

di Michela Troisi

SOMMARIO: 1. Note per un inquadramento preliminare. – 2. Le modifiche intervenute con la revisione del 2012: quale rilievo per la categoria delle leggi di spesa? – 3. Le procedure di spesa tra normazione primaria, regolamenti parlamentari e prassi. – 3.1 Il caso delle clausole di salvaguardia. – 4. L’apporto della giurisprudenza costituzionale. – 4.1 Questioni di carattere “processuale”. – 4.2 Indicazioni di natura “sostanziale”. – 5. Spunti per una costruzione della categoria delle leggi di spesa nel quadro della finanza pubblica allargata.

The essay investigates the category of spending laws, with particular attention to the new elements that can be identified after constitutional law n. 1 of 2012, that introduced, inter alia, the principle of balanced budget. The notion of financial coverage as evoked by Article 81, third paragraph, of the Constitution, is extremely important for the construction of this category. Firstly, after an analysis of the relevant constitutional parameter, the research considers the constraints imposed by ordinary legislation and parliamentary regulations, as well as current practice. Secondly, the study examines the contribution of the Constitutional Court, taking into account both the novelties of "procedural" relevance and the indications of "substantial" nature that derive from constitutional jurisprudence. The result is a complex picture, within which the burden of financial coverage of spending laws appears to be interpreted with ever-greater strictness. The "financialization" of the decisions of the Constitutional Court places the issue of the relationship between resources and rights in the direction of a greater guarantee of the effectiveness of the latter.

di Silvia Filippi

SOMMARIO: 1. L’“argomento della crisi” nella giurisprudenza costituzionale. – 2. Crisi della legge e crisi economica. – 2.1. La giurisprudenza costituzionale sul decreto-legge come indicatore dei rapporti Governo-Parlamento. – 3. Crisi del regionalismo e crisi economica. – 3.1. La giurisprudenza costituzionale su fonti statali che intervengono in materie di competenza regionale come indicatore dei rapporti Stato-Regioni. – 4. La giurisprudenza costituzionale come “specchio” delle crisi. – 5. Qualche considerazione alla luce della “nuova crisi” dovuta al Covid-19.

The essay deals with the Italian Constitutional Court case-law of the past decade and its relation with the evolution of the sources of law. The main concern is represented by the role of the economic crisis in the argumentation of the Constitutional Court. The essay focuses on the analysis of the case-law concerning the decree-law and on the analysis of the case-law concerning national and regional competences. We are now facing at a "new crisis" due to the Covid-19 pandemic and so it is to try to evaluate the impact of the case-law and of the evolution of the sources of law in managing the current situation.

di Alberto Di Chiara

SOMMARIO: 1. Obiettivi e metodo della ricerca. – 2. La normativa finanziaria regionale. – 3. Quanto spendono le Regioni? La spesa pubblica regionale in Italia. – 4. Come spendono le Regioni? Uno sguardo alle leggi di spesa regionali. – 5. Il rinvio da parte delle leggi regionali di spesa alle deliberazioni della Giunta regionale: alcuni dati numerici. – 6. Le deliberazioni delle Giunte regionali: atti amministrativi generali o regolamenti? – 7. Il rinvio da parte delle leggi regionali ad atti amministrativi generali della Giunta: le cause della prassi… – 7.1. … e le conseguenze sul piano teorico. – 7.2. Rinvii ad atti della Giunta e recenti tendenze nel sistema delle fonti. – 8. Conclusioni.

This research aims to investigate the impact of public spending regional laws on the sources of law, with particular regard to the practice of regional laws containing references to regional governments acts.

di Elia Cremona

SOMMARIO: 1. Una coppia di princìpi e lo spazio del problema. – 2. Il processo di “enlargement of functions” della BCE. – 3. La distinzione tra politica economica e politica monetaria nella giurisprudenza della Corte di giustizia e del Bundesverfassungsgericht. – 3.1. Il caso Pringle: un criterio riduttivo e flessibile per la distinzione tra politica economica e monetaria. – 3.2. Il caso Gauweiler: il programma OMT come misura non convenzionale di politica ‘meramente monetaria’. – 3.3 Il caso Weiss: la compatibilità del Public Sector Purchase Programme con il diritto dei Trattati. – 3.4. La sentenza del Bundesverfassungsgericht del 5 maggio 2020: dal dialogo tra le Corti al monologo tedesco. 4. – Osservazioni di sintesi e conclusioni.

In the recent past, the link between the principle of maintaining price stability, in the activity of the ECB and the ESCB, and the principle of conferral has been the core of a broad debate on the means and aims of European Economic and Monetary Union (EMU).
In particular, the heart of the debate concerned the validity of the financial assistance programmes launched within the Eurogroup, as well as the acts with which the ECB has reacted to the financial and sovereign debt crisis since 2011. The so-called non-standard measures, put in place by the ECB in order to preserve the monetary transmission mechanism, have, however, had an effect in the field of economic policy. Thus, for some – above all, the Bundesverfassungsgericht – the intervention of the ECB exceeded its competences with a series of ultra vires acts.
The issue of the correct distinction between economic and monetary policy has thus been raised and petitions have multiplied for a definitive actio finium regundorum between the monetary policy competences attributed to the EU, and in particular to the ECB, and those of economic policy which remain the responsibility of the Member States, except for the “coordination” provided for by the Treaties.
The contribution therefore reconstructs both the process of “enlargement of functions” of the ECB and the parallel process of interpretation of the Treaties followed by the Court of Justice, most recently pressed by the German Federal Constitutional Court.
In conclusion, it makes some critical reflections on the persistent distinction between economic and monetary policy, on the role taken on and consolidated by the ECB in the framework of EMU and finally on the perspectives that open up in the fields of the two policies in the contrast of the crisis triggered by the Covid-19 pandemic.

di Francesco Bilancia

SOMMARIO: 1. Il quadro di contesto. – 2. I possibili scenari nel prossimo futuro. – 3. Il ritorno alla realtà: la crisi delle fonti nell’attuale sistema integrato euro-continentale. – 4. Segue: la politica monetaria tra limiti di competenza e conflitto tra giurisdizioni. Il mistero dei confini della normativa tecnica. – 5. Le fonti del diritto dei bilanci pubblici ed il declino del ruolo del Parlamento nella più recente prassi. – 6. Per concludere: alcune questioni incombenti.