ITALY Trends and Developments Contributed by: Giuseppe Fornari, Enrico Di Fiorino, Emanuele Angiuli and Lorena Morrone, Fornari e Associati
The requirements that the entities identified by the Decree must fulfil can be summarised as fol - lows: • identification of the reporting manager (inter - nal or external, monocratic or collegial); • identification of the internal reporting channel; • adoption of a whistle-blowing policy; • updating 231 Models, the Code of Ethics and any internal documentation mentioning the reporting channels; • privacy obligations; • information provided to persons inside and outside the organisation; and • training of employees and the manager (if internal). First of all, each entity must ensure the adoption of a policy that fully regulates whistle-blowing within the organisation itself. It is advisable for this activity to be entrusted to a lawyer or to a qualified person with specific expertise in the field (possibly outside the organisation). Specifi - cally, the policy must: • define the role and tasks of the individuals responsible for managing the reports; • identify the methods and terms of data reten- tion; • provide and regulate different reporting meth - ods (in written and oral form); • provide for procedures that guarantee the confidentiality of the person making the report, of the other persons indicated by the Decree, and of the content of the report; and • provide for staff awareness-raising and train - ing initiatives to disseminate the purposes of the whistle-blowing policy and the procedure for its use. At the same time, private sector entities that have adopted 231 Models will have to update
them. The Decree has provided that the latter regulate the internal reporting channels, the pro - hibition of retaliation and the disciplinary sys - tem. Alternatively, 231 Models must contain an explicit reference to the policy. European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) The annual report of the EPPO for 2024 was published on 3 March 2025. As stated in the presentation of the Report, as of 31 December 2024, there were: • 2,666 investigations underway, allegedly causing approximately EUR24.8 billion in financial damage to the EU; • 205 indictments (47% more than in 2023); and • asset freezing orders for EUR849 million requested and granted by judges. In specific relation to Italy, 458 investigations were opened and 200 had a transnational dimension. 530 people were indicted in total and EUR605.3 million in frozen assets was accumu - lated. Finally, details of judicial activity showed 175 ongoing proceedings, 28 first instance judgments, 24 res judicata, 22 convictions and two acquittals. Of these proceedings, 131 were for money laundering, 51 for corruption, 12 for embezzlement and 715 for VAT fraud. For example, on 24 October 2024, at the request of the EPPO in Rome, the Italian State Police conducted multiple house searches, arrests and asset seizures in the Lazio and Campania regions. The operation was part of an inves - tigation into an alleged criminal organisation suspected of corruption in the awarding of EU-funded projects under Italy’s Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF).
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