Administrative procedure

The article traces the evolution of Italian legislation regarding marine state property concessions: from the transitional regime of the extensions ex lege of existing concessions, adopted by the Italian legislator in the Nineties, up to the last extension of such concessions to 2033, and taking into account the European Commission’s position. The nature and multiple functions of the concessions for tourist-recreational uses are analyzed. On the basis of that analysis, the objectives and contents of necessary reform of the field are outlined, with the aim of adapting domestic law to EU competition rules. In addition to the obligation to award concessions by tender, the article highlights the need for reform to include the right to compensation of outgoing operators in such a way as to be truly equitable, satisfactory and in accordance with principles of EU law. It should also be noted that the criteria for determining license fees must be revised by introducing the principle of remuneration in order to ensure a genuinely competitive system, one which is efficient and economically sustainable for the State.

Since the adoption of the Charter of Fundamental Rights, in the context of the European Union the so-called “good administration” has emerged as a new fundamental right: the right to good administration, as written and detailed in Article 41 of the EU Charter. As for its specific contents, there is a clear correspondence with the provisions of Article 97 of the Italian Constitution with respect to the need for impartiality and good performance/efficiency of the Public Administration: two principles of which the best expression is found in Law 241 of 1990 on administrative procedure. It is precisely in this perspective that modern Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) can play a fundamental role in the context of public administration, especially in as far as the possibility to carry out an adequate and prompt investigation process during the administrative procedure is concerned.

Self-certification is one of the main tools aimed at administrative simplification and, in particular, at de-bureaucratization of the relationship between the Public Administration and citizens, as it is aimed at reducing the burdens on citizens. Self-certification, which over the years has been the subject of many legislative changes, in Italy has recently been profoundly innovated by the measures adopted following the emergency situation caused by the Coronavirus, which have also extended the scope of application of the principle to relations between private individuals. Despite the many regulatory changes, however, the potential simplification that should result from self-certification is still severely limited in Italy. It will therefore be seen how self-certification – a tool created to relieve the bureaucratic burden on citizens – instead of representing the balance between guarantee, control and simplification, in some case produced new and heavy bureaucratic burdens to the detriment of private individuals, thus totally deviating from the purpose for which the institute itself should be intended.

The contribution analyzes some critical issues in the procedures for entrusting the implementation of telematic booking systems for anti covid-19 vaccines. In particular, the Author emphasizes how the assignment to in-house companies has been unsuccessful. The Author also criticizes the choice of not reusing software solutions already developed for other public administrations. The comment concludes suggesting that the health emergency in progress should rather have led to make the best of the support that private operators could provide.

The field of EU direct administrative law is steadily growing in importance, and issues relating to the consequences of procedural irregularities on the outcome of the procedure are becoming increasingly relevant. The question of when such a violation remains inconsequential – i.e., does not lead to the act being quashed during judicial proceedings, either because the error was rectified or because it can be considered irrelevant – is particularly important, and EU case law has developed a complex jurisprudence in this regard. The aim of this contribution is to systematize this case law with regard to the instruments of rectification and irrelevance of procedural irregularities. Moreover, it compares these legal instruments to their counterparts in Member States’ administrative systems. This comparison shows that EU courts have not co-opted a particular system currently in use in a Member State, but that they often use roughly similar criteria to decide whether an error leads to the annulment of the final decision.

D.L. n. 174/2012 details the internal control system in local authorities envisaged by D.Lgs. n. 286/1999, providing for a preventive and a subsequent phase of administrative regularity control. According to art. 147-bis T.U.E.L., subsequent control is an internal arbitral control, implemented during the following phase of the formation of the act, under the direction of the municipal secretary. It must be ensured according to general principles of corporate audit and methods defined within the organization's autonomy. Acts subject to control include: expenditure commitment determinations, entry verification documents, expenditure settlement documents, contracts and other administrative documents. Subsequent check concerns legitimacy and cost-effectiveness of administrative action. Nevertheless, accounting principles do not properly integrate the purpose of the subsequent check for administrative regularity, as they are concentrated only in regularity check of the determinations, contracts and deeds subject to control and not also accounting check. Art. 147-bis.3 affirms that the municipal secretary must send control results to: units evaluating employees’ results, for example useful documents for the evaluation, the Auditors, the City Council and the various heads of services, along with directives to comply with in case of irregularity. Subsequent check processes may take advantage of digital transformation since it is realized through a double paper-digital track. Thus, we could hypothesize the development of an ad hoc IT platform. As an outcome, there could be several benefits such as the dematerialisation and progressive digitization of the procedure. Besides, all the information of the authority would be better integrated, while optimizing the data acquired, avoiding duplications in document requests and allowing for a green transition.

The withdrawal of unlawful acts of public administrations aids the judicial function to guarantee effet utile. It follows the functionalization of procedural autonomy to the principle of effectiveness of EU rules. This, however, cannot go against the Community principle of legal certainty and the protection of legitimate expectations. Hence, the conflict between certainty and justice must be resolved through a synthesis of the opposing interests by the application of the principle of proportionality which conforms to the principle of legality.

This paper analyses the decree n. 1135 of 8 June 2020, through which the Campania Regional Administrative Court, section V, has precautionary upheld the request to suspend the effectiveness of the ordinances n. 248 of 29 May 2020 and n. 249 of 04 June 2020 of the Mayor of Naples. The two ordinances determined, on the one hand, a derogating discipline regarding the opening hours of retail establishments, already subjected to regional regulation, and on the other hand, an extension in terms of concessions for the temporary occupation of public land, which, instead, are disciplined by the municipal regulation "Dehors".

Article 6bis of Law no. 241/1990 governs the conflict of interest in exercising administrative power; however, this legal rule does not provide a definition of “procedural conflict of interest” and it does not define the nature of the procedure requiring the public servant to abstain. The present study analyses the doctrinal and jurisprudential orientations formed with regard to the aforementioned notion and attempts to identify the application area of the institute.

Approaching the summer season, the destiny of beach resorts and establishments is a subject of notable interest, because it also raises unresolved questions from the point of view of the relationship, often full of contradictions, between national administrative law and the principles of European Union law. Therefore, clear rules need to be defined in order to allow the summer season to take place safely both for operators and tourists. It is also of paramount importance to overcome the inertia of the legislator with regard to the reform of this sector, concerning overall the expiry of ongoing concessions on the basis of the principles of public evidence established by the EU Treaties and by the “Services Directive” 123/2006/CE (which includes in its scope of applications maritime, lake and river concessions). In this sense, the emergency could be the right moment to adopt measures that take into account each specific situation as to protect the legitimate expectations of the concession holders (in any case in compliance with what has already been affirmed by the EU Court following a preliminary ruling in joined cases C-458/14 e C-67/15, Promoimpresa e sig. Melis. In addition this allows to make further reflections on "Emergency Administration" on the bases of the provisions suggested by the technical committees in order to contain contagion from Covid19 and concerning also the seaside businesses.  Decisions required to deal with the crisis must certainly be inspired by the precautionary principle, but they must also respect the principle of proportionality as to limit unsuitable effects on other emerging interests, including the impact on the stability of the EU single market (of services).