ITALY Law and Practice Contributed by: David A Röttgen, Andrea Farì, Francesco Fonderico and Ermanno Fonderico, Ambientalex Studio Legale
tion of the Regional Environmental Agencies ( Agenzie regionali di protezione ambientale , or ARPAs). Regional and Local Authorities Important administrative functions are assigned to regional and local authorities, which may participate in environmental proceedings (eg, planning proce- dures, environmental authorisations, the setting of standards, the provision of economic measures, and the powers of ordinance, sanctions and control). Regional authorities are also entrusted with sectoral planning powers, while urban planning is conferred on municipalities. The independent Authority for Energy, Networks and Environment ( Autorità di Regolazione per Energia Reti e Ambiente , or ARERA) has compe- tencies in certain waste and water sectors. Finally, extended producer responsibility (EPR) legislation entrusts private entities, such as consortiums of pro- ducers of certain goods, with the management of the waste deriving from their products. These consorti- ums, however, do not qualify as public enforcement authorities. 2.2 Co-Operation Law No 132 of 28 June 2016 established the Nation- al Networked System for Environmental Protection ( Sistema Nazionale Protezione Ambiente , or SNPA), which is the most important co-operation institution provided at the national level and includes ISPRA and ARPAs. The SNPA performs both environmental monitoring functions as well as scientific and technical support for the activities of national, regional and local bodies with environmental administration tasks. Through its council, the SNPA expresses its binding opinion of a technical nature on government meas- ures and also advises the Permanent Conference for Relations between the State, the Regions and the Autonomous Provinces of Trento and Bolzano on the necessity of actions – including legislative ones – for the purposes of pursuing sustainable development objectives, reducing land consumption, safeguard- ing and promoting the quality of the environment and protecting natural resources.
Among the most important co-operation mechanisms in the active environmental administration is the instru- ment of the Service Conference ( Conferenza di servi- zi ), where the opinions of the various administrations involved in the decision-making process are acquired for the authorisation of the project to be implemented. The general discipline is provided for by Law No 241/1990 (Articles 14 et seq). However, the Code also provides for many environmental proceedings that expressly provide for the Service Conference – eg, remediation, environmental impact assessment (EIA), authorisations under Directive 96/61/EC concerning integrated pollution prevention and control (IPPC), etc. 3. Environmental Protections 3.1 Protection of Environmental Assets The Constitutional Law of 11 February 2022, No 1 amended the Italian Constitution by giving full consti- tutional dignity to environmental protection. The amendment inserts a third paragraph into Article 9 which provides that the Republic shall protect “the environment, biodiversity and ecosystems, including in the interest of future generations”. Furthermore, “[t] he law of the State shall regulate the ways and forms of protection of animals”, and in Article 41 a reference to “health” and “the environment” is added to the sec- ond paragraph as being among the interests to which free economic initiative cannot “cause harm”. The Constitution is the first source in the legal system that brings substantial protection to environmental matrices. Such matrices do also find a place within the Code, which offers tools for their protection. These tools are mainly plans and programmes that regulate human activity by providing limits and controls. In addition to the Code, the matrices – such as air, fresh as well as sea water, soil, flora and fauna, natural habi- tats and landscapes – are subject to their own sectoral legislation. 3.2 Breaching Protections Violation of regulations that offer protection to the environment and ecosystems may result in the adop- tion of sanctions. The administrative sanctions are
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