As in many sectors, even in that of legislation, the Covid-19 pandemic marked a discontinuity. The health emergency has strengthened the weight of government initiative in legislation, and in particular the use of decree laws, fueling the debate among professionals and not on whether or not a balance has been guaranteed in the system of sources. “The current situation – highlights the”2021 Legislation Report“By the Observatory on Legislation of the Studies Service of the Chamber of Deputies, presented on Friday 29 October in Montecitorio – due to the current emergency, there will be a succession of several decree-laws, all of significant significance”.
It is realistic to expect a still substantial recourse to urgent decrees
This trend is destined to remain. «Under unchanged conditions, it is however realistic to expect a consistent recourse to the emergency decree in the next few years – the Report emphasizes -. Therefore, regardless of the discussion on possible legislative or regulatory changes, it will be essential to identify ways to strengthen, also in this context, the tools for a parliamentary decision that is as informed and aware as possible. It is therefore a question of strengthening the tools for in-depth knowledge available to the Chambers even in the tight time frame for examining a decree-law; this – the document continues – could perhaps more easily take place, in the face of often multi-sectoral measures and assigned in the referent to a reduced number of committees (in the current phase in particular the Budget Commission in connection with the economic aspects, the Business Commission constitutional in connection with the institutional aspects, the Social Affairs Commission in connection with the health emergency), on the occasion of the examination in the consultative session carried out by the sector commissions “.
The vice-president of the Rosato Chamber: limit the use of the law decrees
As of August 10, 2021, 213 laws were approved, of which 75 were laws converting decree-laws and 94 other laws of government initiative. In terms of word count, converted by-laws occupy 71% of the total word count of laws passed in the Legislature, other government-initiated laws 27%, and only 2% are occupied by parliamentary-initiated laws. In short, in the words of the vice president of the Chamber, Ettore Rosato, «when a decree law is presented a week, it becomes difficult to find space for other legislative initiatives. The decree law seems to have become the only vehicle in which to channel legislative initiatives, parliamentarians are only waiting for the right decree to be able to channel their bills that otherwise would never see the time to be discussed. It is necessary to circumscribe the use of law decrees ”, he concluded.
The growing practice of alternating single chamberism
At the same time another aspect is highlighted: the growing practice of alternating single chamberism. “The trend seems to be affirming that the Chamber, which cannot modify an important decree law, will be assigned the next one at first reading”, highlights the Report. The consequence of this scheme is the compression of the parliamentary examination times, with consequent tensions. The survey emphasizes the situation of “institutional stress” that the consistent use of the emergency decree presents, “stress due to the” twisting “carried out over time and in practice of an instrument designed by the Constituents with other purpose “. Without forgetting the ever-increasing dimensions of the decree-laws and their growing multi-sectoriality.
The advantages of the emergency decree
The urgent decree, it is highlighted in the document, “seems to represent the only legislative instrument that presents, due to the constitutional term of sixty days, certain times of approval. In this sense, not only for the Government but also for the requests coming from parliamentarians, the process of converting the decree-laws represents a safer way for the approval of concrete solutions to specific problems, compared to the process of the other projects of law. From this point of view – continues the Observatory – the process of converting the decree-laws appears to be a preferable way also with respect to the other “accelerated” procedures present in the parliamentary system, which would seem to be privileged in the abstract: the related bills and declarations of urgency. The only exception, as is known, is the annual budget law, which also has a final deadline for approval, 31 December, otherwise the provisional exercise will take over “