Metropolitan Governance and Metropolitan Cities in Italy: Outdated Solutions For Processes of Urban Regionalisation?

Law 142, issued in 1990, introducing the compulsory institution of ‘metropolitan areas’ in Italy for the very first time has never been implemented. The institution of metropolitan areas was rendered voluntary by Law 436/1993. At the end of the nineties, with Law 265/1999, municipalities became responsible for promoting the new institution, provided by a new governmental power. More recently, in 2011, the constitutional reform recognised metropolitan areas as being on the same level as other local bodies, namely the regions, provinces and municipalities. A further law issued in 2009 tried to define the process of institutionalisation of metropolitan areas, based on the proposal of the core city or the province, in order to reduce further obstacles to their implementation. All in all, the whole story is characterised by the main cities’ weak political interest in the implementation of the law, the conflict between different municipalities and the main city, and the opposition of provincial and regional government to the constitution of a new powerful territorial level. This institutional fragmentation and misalignment led to the failure of all the different legislative initiatives for almost 25 years and there remain evident obstacles today and during the current new period.

In addition to the cities listed above, Trieste, Palermo, Catania, Messina and Cagliari, located in Autonomous Regions with special status, will also have the opportunity to become metropolitan cities, if the respective Regional Assemblies decide in favour.

The Monti Government was the 61^st government of the Italian Republic, the second and last of the XVI legislature. Started on the 16 November 2011, nominated by the President of the Republic Giorgio Napolitano after the crisis of the Silvio Berlusconi Government, it ended on 21 December 2012 when a new government, led by Enrico Letta, was appointed (based on a large coalition of political parties after the impasse generated by the results of the political elections in February 2013).

According to the White Paper edited by the Consiglio Italiano per le Scienze Sociali (CSS 2011). The White paper was a very first attempt by the academic world to produce a new public debate on a new policy agenda for cities in Italy.

The current government is led by President Matteo Renzi; it is the second government of the XVII legislature and it started on 22 February 2014, after the demission of the Letta Government, due to a rather complicated crisis inside the main political party supporting his government (Partito Democratico).

According to the reform (the so-called DDL Boschi), which has been voted on by parliament but should be approved through a referendum in October 2016, the Senate becomes a smaller chamber, whose members will no longer be directly elected but representatives of municipalities and regions nominated by the President of the Republic. One of the most interesting elements of the reform is that it will definitely change the Italian perfect bicameral system: laws in fact will be approved by the Chamber, while the Senate will have the possibility to vote on laws, but this will not be compulsory as it has been so far.

See in particular http://​www.​anci.​it/​index.​cfm?​layout=​dettaglio&​IdDett=​54662 (29.06.2016) and ANCI (2016).

Regional laws were expected to define the modalities of the redefinition of the boundary of the metropolitan cities. All the 15 ordinary regions have approved regional laws on the reorganisation of provincial functions and the related reorganisation of institutional territorial organisation (see a complete report on http://​www.​upinet.​it/​4692/​istituzioni_​e_​riforme/​lattuazione_​della_​legge_​56_​in_​ambit_​regionale/​ (29.06.2016)).

See below on strategic planning competences assigned to metropolitan cities.

At the same time, in different contexts, some municipalities are applying to either enter or exit the new metropolitan city. This is possible but it must be justified with clear arguments and supported by a regional approval act, according to new regional laws to be approved for the implementation of the national one.

The same could be noted, just to provide another two paradigmatic examples, in the case of Città metropolitana di Roma Capitale, where the metropolitan city covers a very vast territory, the former provincial one, probably too large to identify the core urban region, and at the same time has to deal with the specific role of the national capital of the city of Rome (Cellamare 2016). In the case of Venice Città metropolitana, the città metropolitana is based on the former provincial boundaries and seems to simultaneously look for a larger scale (defined as ‘metropolitan area’, which includes a larger regional space with strong socio-spatial connections) able to represent the complexity of the urbanisation pattern in the Veneto context (Vettoretto/Fregolent 2016) and a more strategic definition of internal structures able to produce a policy agenda for development (see the website http://​www.​veneziacittametr​opolitana.​it (29.06.2016), in particular the pages dedicated to introducing the definition of the città metropolitana).

In all cases all roles are unpaid and the metropolitan council is otherwise elected by the mayors and municipal councillors of the municipalities. They can be elected among mayors and councillors of the municipalities. Votes are calculated on the basis of a specific weighted calculation related to the demographics of municipalities.

In particular the local seats of Confindustria, the association of industrial entrepreneurs, have established a coordination group in order to monitor the situation. In the case of Milan, for example, Assolombarda, the local association of entrepreneurs, has promoted a number of studies to support the process and has tried to have a voice in the approval of the local plan in order to have more defined involvement in the governance of the città metropolitana (see Biondi 2016).

According to Paragraph 44-46 of the Law 56/2014.

To follow both these processes, see http://​www.​urbanit.​it (29.06.2016).