Council of Ministers

The government challenges the Trento law on the third term but there is a clash in the majority: the League votes against

OK for the infrastructure decree: on flights subject to public service obligations, primarily for Sicily and Sardinia, fares may be subject to a ceiling 'for certain categories of passengers' in the event that prices soar at certain times of the year, as happens punctually during the summer or during holiday periods

by Rome Editorial Staff

19 May 2025

Il decreto Infrastrutture è approdato sul tavolo del Consiglio dei ministri

5' min read

Key points

Government challenges Trentino law on mandates, League votes against
Fugatti: government appeal is an act against Trentino
Sources: 'technical' challenge to Trentino law in Cdm, 'no political fact'
The Infrastructure Decree
Increase for construction contracts, capped at 50%
Meeting at the ministry on the anti-mafia plan
The measures in the belly of the measure
In cdm green light for autonomy bill
Assessed universities, more money to the best

5' min read

The government has approved the Infrastructure Decree. This was announced by MIT, while the Council of Ministers meeting was still in progress at Palazzo Chigi. Also on the government's table were Lep (Essential Levels of Performance) and third term. The executive meeting then ended a few minutes before 1pm.

Government challenges Trentino law on mandates, Lega votes against

The Council of Ministers, according to several sources, also resolved to appeal to the Constitutional Court the law of the Autonomous Province of Trento that raised the limit of consecutive mandates for the president of the province from two to three. The resolution came after a rather debated discussion among ministers, and with the League voting against. Regional Affairs Minister Roberto Calderoli and Agriculture Minister Francesco Lollobrigida, among others, intervened. The law of the Autonomous Province of Trento would allow for a third term of office for the president of the autonomous province (today's Leghist Maurizio Fugatti).

Fugatti: government appeal is an act against Trentino

"We consider it a very heavy institutional act against the prerogatives of Trentino autonomy, with a clear political value," the president of the Autonomous Province of Trento, Maurizio Fugatti, told journalists, commenting on the government's challenge to the law on the third term of office. 'The special autonomies,' he added, 'as the Constitutional Court said between the lines in the Campania ruling, have exclusive legislative power over this matter. So we consider this an act against the autonomy of Trentino'.

Sources: 'technical' challenge to Trentino law in CEM, 'no political fact'

In the Council of Ministers, the centre-right majority is divided on the Trentino case. Sources present at the Council of Ministers specified that there was no real vote on the issue, but the ministers of Matteo Salvini's party would nevertheless have reiterated their opposition. According to sources close to the dossier, the appeal is a 'technical instrument': the meeting - which took place in an atmosphere described as 'calm' - revealed that 'the third mandate is being discussed'. The objective of the appeal would therefore be to clarify 'a broader framework' from a legislative point of view, with a view to involving all the political forces. In any case, the appeal, stresses another government source, 'is not a political fact, given that Fugatti's mandate expires in 2028 and therefore the Constitutional Court's ruling will arrive in time'.

The Infrastructures Decree

The Infrastructure decree contains regulations that are very different from each other, from flight fares to dates for the bathing season, and has lost a few pieces compared to the first drafts circulated: there is no longer any provision for the paragraph that transformed the Stretto di Messina company, which has the task of building the bridge, into a 'contracting station', thus able to independently manage the complete process of operations.

Also on the agenda of the meeting, therefore, was the draft enabling act on the Essential Levels of Care (LEP) related to differentiated autonomy.

Increase for works contracts, with a maximum limit of 50%

As far as the infrastructure measure is concerned, there are two rules left that concern the substance, they concern the price: the first allows an adjustment of the cost originally set in the 2012 Nadef at 8.5 billion while it now stands at 13.5 billion; the second allows an increase for contracts for the realisation of the work, with a maximum limit of 50 per cent, as required by European regulations. These are regulations that seem to bring closer the appointment with CIPESS, the interministerial committee for economic planning, which should give the final go-ahead before the concrete start of the works.

Meeting at the ministry on the anti-mafia plan

At the Mit the minister Matteo Salvini has called a press conference and a meeting with experts and institutions with the aim of developing an anti-mafia plan that will accompany the construction from the earliest stages, those of land expropriations. What has already been put in place for the Milan-Cortina Olympics will be followed, explains the Ministry of Infrastructure: for the stable connection between Calabria and Sicily, the same plan will be followed, with updated and reinforced measures that will come into operation as early as the first phase of the work, i.e. during the expropriations, which have already been monitored by the competent prefectures.

The measures in the belly of the measure

On the other hand, there are many articles: from tariffs for flights subject to public service obligations to the procurement code, from adjustments for certain measures in the NRP to motorway concessions to the dates of the bathing season.

On flights subject to public service obligations, first and foremost to Sicily and Sardinia, fares may be subject to a ceiling 'for certain categories of passengers' in the event that prices soar at certain times of the year, as happens punctually during the summer or during holiday periods.

The regulations make tenders and subcontracts for civil protection emergencies faster and easier: penalties of 02.5 per thousand for each day of delay up to a maximum of 10 per cent of the amount of the work are foreseen, but also the possibility of bonuses of the same amount if the work is finished early.

Some regulations also concern seismic inspections of public offices, with the arrival of a crowding index. To give homogeneity to bathing safety measures, it is then established throughout the territory that the bathing season runs from the third week of May to the third week of September each year. The regions or local authorities may anticipate or postpone the start of the bathing season by a week, but not extend the overall duration of the period. Outside this period, the bathing establishments may still open by activating bathing assistance services or allocating the beaches for 'heliotherapeutic' purposes only, as in, to sunbathe without bathing.

In cdm green light for autonomy bill

The Council of Ministers also approved the draft enabling act on the Essential Levels of Care (LEP) related to differentiated autonomy. The May 16 draft bill consists of thirty-three articles, divided into three titles. The text delegates the executive to adopt legislative decrees aimed at defining the LEP in matters of concurrent competence between State and Regions, in implementation of Article 116, third paragraph, of the Constitution. The first article of the measure, seen by Adnkronos, reads: 'for the purposes of the complete implementation of Article 116, third paragraph, of the Constitution, the government is delegated to adopt, within nine months from the date of entry into force of this law, one or more legislative decrees for the determination, for the specific functions governed by the regulations in force in the matters or areas of matters referred to in Article 3, paragraph 3, of Law 26 June 2024, no. 86, with the exclusion of the matter indicated in letter f) of the same paragraph', i.e. the part relating to the protection of health, 'of the essential levels of the services concerning civil and social rights that must be guaranteed throughout the national territory'. The second title of the draft enabling act indicates the areas of intervention of the LEP, namely: labour, education, research, food, sport, territorial government, civil ports and airports, transport and navigation networks, communication, energy, culture and the environment.

Assessed universities, more money to the best

New university lecturers will be evaluated every two years, and these evaluations will influence the funds allocated to universities: those who hire the best candidates will get more funds. This is what is envisaged by the reform of the procedures for access to the university profession, presented by University Minister Anna Maria Bernini and approved by the Council of Ministers. It envisages easier recruitment paths with self-certification, the strengthening of university autonomy, and greater responsibility for universities. Among the innovations to be introduced, the State will set the minimum requirements at national level, but the universities will manage the selections.