Air quality: in order to implement EU regulations, the regions cannot request further funding
The Constitutional Court has dismissed the appeal lodged by Lombardy, Piedmont and Veneto
The Regions cannot object to the State’s failure to provide resources for improvements air quality. The transposition of the European directive on this matter has not yet conferred new powers on regional governors, who are therefore unable to take preventative action.
Appeals by the Regions
In its Judgment No. 145, the Constitutional Court also addressed a question of constitutionality that had been raised, rather unusually, by the Regions of Lombardy, Piedmont and Veneto, in three separate appeals. The three governors challenged Article 12 of the 2024 European Delegated Act, raising various grounds of constitutional illegality. This is the enabling act for the transposition of the European directive on air quality, in which regional plans play a central role. According to the enabling act, the implementation of that article ‘must not result in new or increased burdens on public finances’.
It is precisely on this point, then, that many of the objections raised by the Regions focus. According to the ruling, however, these are inadmissible because they refer to resources for carrying out functions that have ‘not yet been assigned’. Furthermore, the appeals ‘did not specify what additional functions would now be assigned to them beyond those’ already within their remit, nor did they explain why ‘the available resources would not be sufficient’.
Plan preparation and monitoring
In this context, the drafting of air quality plans and the monitoring ‘are already part of the Regions’ institutional and routine duties, and do not structurally require additional resources’. It should also be noted that, during the implementation phase, the legislator could ‘adapt these additional tasks taking into account the available resources, promoting forms of inter-institutional coordination and the better use or distribution of existing resources’.
In this context, the Court also noted that the review of constitutionality is a means of safeguarding the legislative powers of the Regions. ‘An appeal,’ the judges state, ‘may be lodged not only when regional powers are unduly withdrawn or restricted, but also, conversely, when powers are attributed to the Regions that do not fall within their remit.’
