The burden of bureaucracy for SMEs reaches 4% of turnover
It drops to 2.1% for medium-sized enterprises, as noted Assolombarda. In a nutshell, the cost ranges from 108,000 euros for a small company to 710,000 euros for a medium-sized company. But the worst is that, in this historical phase, the snares and snares of the Italian public administration risk undermining the great opportunity of the Pnrr. He is convinced of it Antonello Martinezpresident of the Italian association of business lawyers, which helps Italian and foreign companies to settle down and grow in our country.
From the privileged observatory of his studio, Martinez observes the most disparate cases of “bad bureaucracy”. There are companies that have worked with the Superbonus and that, due to the continuous changes in the law and the blocking of tax credits, risk bankruptcy. Then there are those victims of legal interpretations. An example? A company that has filed self-certified documentation, but has seen the files returned to the sender because the administration has asked for the original certificates, AND, finally, companies that suffer from delays in authorisations like someone who tries to obtain a license to build a shed and is forced to wait a year. “How can an international company wait a year? How can you plan in these times!” Martinez wonders rhetorically.
Yet there is interest in Italy and it is high
It also increased due to Brexit. “From my observatory, which is my studio, we have registered a significant increase in customers, about 10 times more since Brexit started. Many companies that were in London have in fact had to look for a headquarters in Europe and many have turned and are turning to Italy. Many also to Germany and France, but really many also to Italy. The problem is that the times are very long ”he explains.
The problem is the thousands of laws
“One of the gifts Draghi gives is the census of Italian laws. In force in Italy we have 160 thousand state laws. To have a benchmark, just think that England has 3,500. Add to the state ones, the issues related to the regional, municipal, provincial and above all the billions of cases of jurisprudence which is fundamental for us, you understand that we are in disaster” continues the expert. “For us lawyers it is a wonderful world because everything this legislative apparatus does nothing but fuel the litigation. Although I have to admit that this state of affairs has repercussions both in the legal profession because it is difficult for a single lawyer to know them all and extricate himself from 160,000 state laws in force and here the setting of the profession of lawyers,” he points out.
The result is, to say the least, very bad: “entrepreneurs and companies are oppressed by hundreds of formalities. So it happens that even for foreign investors the bureaucracy issue remains one of the major problems because what elsewhere is done in an hour takes six months in Italy. This is the situation,” he clarifies. And those who hope for new technologies could be disappointed: “issues, even related to artificial intelligence, find and collide with a wall which is that of bureaucracy which does not allow you, even though there are specific laws to cut the times,” he adds.
It is necessary to simplify and digitize
But above all there is a need for a change of mentality if one does not want to lose the opportunity of the Pnrr. “I was recently reading that for a licence planning permission for renovations, not for construction, takes about six times as long as it takes in Germany. Six times. I hope that in the near future there will be a deforestation of bureaucracy in the total safeguard of all the principles of ecology and correctness” emphasizes the lawyer Martinez. Only in this way, in his view, will Italy be able to attract new businesses and make investments on schedule. “We have examples of efficiency such as when the extraordinary commissioner was appointed in the reconstruction of the Genoa bridge. In that case everything worked with absolute speed and capacity. So the point is not that we are not capable, but we are bound, handcuffed, gagged by bureaucracy ”he concludes.