Regions of Italy

The regions of Italy (Italian: regioni) are the first-level administrative divisions of Italy, constituting its second NUTS administrative level.[1] There are 20 regions, of which five are constitutionally given a broader amount of autonomy granted by special statutes.

Each region, except for the Aosta Valley, is divided into provinces. Regions are autonomous entities with powers defined in the Constitution.

History

As the administrative districts of the central state during the Kingdom of Italy, regions were granted a measure of political autonomy by the 1948 Constitution of the Italian Republic. The original draft list comprised the Salento region (which was eventually included in the Apulia). Friuli and Venezia Giulia were separate regions, and Basilicata was named Lucania. Abruzzo and Molise were identified as separate regions in the first draft. They were later merged into Abruzzo e Molise in the final constitution of 1948. They were separated in 1963.

Implementation of regional autonomy was postponed until the first Regional Elections of 1970. The ruling Christian Democracy party did not want the opposition Italian Communist Party to gain power in the regions, where it was historically rooted (the red belt of Emilia-Romagna, Tuscany, Umbria and the Marches).

Regions acquired a significant level of autonomy following a constitutional reform in 2001 (brought about by a centre-left government and confirmed by popular referendum), which granted them residual policy competence. A further federalist reform was proposed by the regionalist party Lega Nord and in 2005, the centre-right government led by Silvio Berlusconi proposed a new reform that would have greatly increased the power of regions.[2]

In June 2006 the proposals, which had been particularly associated with Lega Nord, and seen by some as leading the way to a federal state, were rejected in a referendum by 61.7% to 38.3%.[2] The results varied considerably among the regions, ranging from 55.3% in favor in Veneto to 82% against in Calabria.[2]

Regional control

Italian Regions coloured by the political membership of their president (end 2018)

Number of regions controlled by each coalition since 1995:

  Center-left
  Center-right
  Others

Regions

Flag Region
Italian name		 Status Population[3]
January 2016		 Area Pop. density HDI[4] Capital President Number of comuni[5] Prov. or
metrop. cities
Number % km² %
Abruzzo
Abruzzo		 Ordinary 1,326,513 2.19% 10,832 3.59% 122 0.890 L'Aquila Luciano D'Alfonso
Democratic Party		 305 4
Aosta Valley
Valle d'Aosta		 Autonomous 127,329 0.21% 3,261 1.08% 39 0.878 Aosta Nicoletta Spelgatti
Lega Nord[6]		 74 1
Apulia
Puglia		 Ordinary 4,077,166 6.72% 19,541 6.47% 209 0.852 Bari Michele Emiliano
Democratic Party		 25 6
Basilicata
Basilicata		 Ordinary 573,694 0.95% 10,073 3.33% 57 0.857 Potenza Marcello Pittella
Democratic Party		 131 2
Calabria
Calabria		 Ordinary 1,970,521 3.25% 15,222 5.04% 129 0.850 Catanzaro Mario Oliverio
Democratic Party		 405 5
Campania
Campania		 Ordinary 5,850,850 9.64% 13,671 4.53% 428 0.847 Naples Vincenzo De Luca
Democratic Party		 550 5
Emilia-Romagna
Emilia-Romagna		 Ordinary 4,448,146 7.33% 22,453 7.43% 198 0.915 Bologna Stefano Bonaccini
Democratic Party		 333 9
Friuli-Venezia Giulia
Friuli-Venezia Giulia		 Autonomous 1,221,218 2.01% 7,862 2.60% 155 0.898 Trieste Massimiliano Fedriga
Lega Nord		 216 4
Lazio
Lazio		 Ordinary 5,888,472 9.70% 17,232 5.70% 342 0.909 Rome Nicola Zingaretti
Democratic Party		 378 5
Liguria
Liguria		 Ordinary 1,571,053 2.59% 5,416 1.79% 290 0.896 Genoa Giovanni Toti
Forza Italia		 235 4
Lombardy
Lombardia		 Ordinary 10,008,349 16.50% 23,864 7.90% 419 0.907 Milan Attilio Fontana
Lega Nord		 1,523 12
Marche
Marche		 Ordinary 1,543,752 2.54% 9,401 3.11% 164 0.896 Ancona Luca Ceriscioli
Democratic Party		 229 5
Molise
Molise		 Ordinary 312,027 0.51% 4,461 1.48% 70 0.867 Campobasso Donato Toma
Forza Italia		 136 2
Piedmont
Piemonte		 Ordinary 4,404,246 7.26% 25,387 8.40% 173 0.892 Turin Sergio Chiamparino
Democratic Party		 1,202 8
Sardinia
Sardegna		 Autonomous 1,658,138 2.73% 24,100 7.98% 69 0.863 Cagliari Francesco Pigliaru
Democratic Party		 377 5
Sicily
Sicilia		 Autonomous 5,074,261 8.36% 25,832 8.55% 196 0.845 Palermo Nello Musumeci
Diventerà Bellissima		 390 9
Trentino-South Tyrol
Trentino-Alto Adige		 Autonomous 1,059,114 1.75% 13,606 4.50% 78 0.919 Trento Arno Kompatscher
South Tyrolean People's Party		 293 2
Tuscany
Toscana		 Ordinary 3,744,398 6.17% 22,987 7.61% 163 0.903 Florence Enrico Rossi
Article 1 – Democratic and Progressive Movement		 276 10
Umbria
Umbria		 Ordinary 891,181 1.47% 8,464 2.80% 105 0.889 Perugia Catiuscia Marini
Democratic Party		 92 2
Veneto
Veneto		 Ordinary 4,915,123 8.10% 18,407 6.09% 267 0.896 Venice Luca Zaia
Lega Nord		 575 7
Italy
Italia		 — 60,665,551 100.00% 302,073 100.00% 201 0.887 Rome Sergio Mattarella
Independent		 7,978 107

Macroregions

Macroregions are the first-level NUTS of the European Union.(it)

Map Macroregion
Italian name		 Regions Major city Population
January 2016		 Area (km²) Pop. density
Number % km² %
 North-West
Nord-Ovest		 Aosta Valley
Liguria
Lombardy
Piedmont		 Milan 16,110,977 26.56% 57,928 19.18% 278
 North-East
Nord-Est		 Emilia-Romagna
Friuli-Venezia Giulia
Trentino-South Tyrol
Veneto		 Bologna 11,643,601 19.19% 62,328 20.63% 187
 Centre
Centro		 Lazio
Marche
Tuscany
Umbria		 Rome 12,067,803 19.89% 58,084 19.23% 208
 South
Sud		 Abruzzo
Apulia
Basilicata
Calabria
Campania
Molise		 Naples 14,110,771 23.26% 73,800 24.43% 191
 Islands
Isole or Insulare (adj)		 Sardinia
Sicily		 Palermo 6,732,399 11.10% 49,932 16.53% 135

Status

Every region has a statute that serves as a regional constitution, determining the form of government and the fundamental principles of the organization and the functioning of the region, as prescribed by the Constitution of Italy (Article 123). Although all the regions except Tuscany define themselves in various ways as an "autonomous Region" in the first article of their Statutes,[7] fifteen regions have ordinary statutes and five have special statutes, granting them extended autonomy.

Regions with ordinary statute

These regions, whose statutes are approved by their regional councils, were created in 1970, even though the Italian Constitution dates back to 1948. Since the constitutional reform of 2001 they have had residual legislative powers. The regions have exclusive legislative power with respect to any matters not expressly reserved to state law (Article 117).[8] Yet their financial autonomy is quite modest: they just keep 20% of all levied taxes, mostly used to finance the region-based healthcare system.[9]

Autonomous regions with special statute

Autonomous regions

Article 116 of the Italian Constitution grants to five regions (namely Sardinia, Sicily, Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol, Aosta Valley and Friuli-Venezia Giulia) home rule, allowing them some legislative, administrative and financial power to a varying extent, depending on their specific statute. These regions became autonomous in order to take into account cultural differences and protect linguistic minorities. Moreover, the government wanted to prevent their secession from Italy after the Second World War.[10]

Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol constitutes a special case. The region is nearly powerless, and the powers granted by the region's statute are mostly exercised by the two autonomous provinces within the region, Trentino and South Tyrol. In this case, the regional institution plays a coordinating role.

Institutions

Each region has an elected parliament, called Consiglio Regionale (regional council), or Assemblea Regionale (regional assembly) in Sicily, and a government called Giunta Regionale (regional committee), headed by a governor called Presidente della Giunta Regionale (president of the regional committee) or Presidente della Regione (regional president). The latter is directly elected by the citizens of each region, with the exceptions of Aosta Valley and Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol, where he is chosen by the regional council.

Under the 1995 electoral law, the winning coalition receives an absolute majority of seats on the council. The president chairs the giunta, and nominates or dismisses its members, called assessori. If the directly elected president resigns, new elections are called immediately.

In Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol, the regional council is made up of the joint session of the two provincial councils of Trentino and of South Tyrol, and the regional governor is one of the two provincial commissioners.

Representation in the Senate

Number of senators currently assigned to each Region.

Article 57 of the Constitution of Italy establishes that the Senate of the Italian Republic is elected on a regional basis (excluding 6 senators elected by Italians residing abroad and a small number of senator for life) by Italian citizens aged 25 or older.

The 309 senators are assigned to each region proportionally according to their population. However, Article 57 of the Constitution provides that no region can have fewer than seven senators representing it, except for the Aosta Valley (which has one) and Molise (which has two).

Region Seats[11] Region Seats Region Seats
 Abruzzo 7  Friuli-Venezia Giulia 7  Sardinia 8
 Aosta Valley 1  Lazio 28  Sicily 25
 Apulia 20  Liguria 8  South Tyrol 7
 Basilicata 7  Lombardy 49  Tuscany 18
 Calabria 10  Marche 8  Umbria 7
 Campania 29  Molise 2  Veneto 24
 Emilia-Romagna 22  Piedmont 22 Overseas constituencies 6

Economy of regions and macroregions

Flag Name GDP 2011 million, EUR[12] GDP 2011 per capita 2011, EUR[12] GDP 2011 million PPS, EUR[12] GDP 2011 per capita 2011 PPS, EUR[12]
Abruzzo 30,073 22,400 29,438 21,900
Aosta Valley 4,328 33,700 4,236 33,000
Apulia 69,974 17,100 68,496 16,700
Basilicata 10,744 18,300 10,517 17,900
Calabria 33,055 16,400 32,357 16,100
Campania 93,635 16,000 91,658 15,700
Emilia-Romagna 142,609 32,100 139,597 31,400
Friuli-Venezia Giulia 36,628 29,600 35,855 29,000
Lazio 172,246 29,900 168,609 29,300
Liguria 43,998 27,200 43,069 26,700
Lombardy 337,161 33,900 330,042 33,200
Marches 40,877 26,100 40,014 25,500
Molise 6,414 20,100 6,278 19,700
Piedmont 125,997 28,200 123,336 27,600
Sardinia 33,075 19,700 32,377 19,300
Sicily 83,956 16,600 82,183 16,300
Trentino-Alto Adige 35,797 34,450 35,041 33,700
Tuscany 106,013 28,200 103,775 27,600
Umbria 21,533 23,700 21,078 23,200
Veneto 149,527 30,200 146,369 29,600
Code Name GDP 2011 million, EUR[12] GDP 2011 per capita 2011, EUR[12] GDP 2011 million PPS, EUR[12] GDP 2011 per capita 2011 PPS, EUR[12]
ITE Centre 340,669 28,400 333,475 27,800
ITD North-East 364,560 31,200 356,862 30,600
ITC North-West 511,484 31,700 500,683 31,000
ITG Islands 117,031 17,400 114,560 17,000
ITF South 243,895 17,200 238,744 16,800
- Extra-regio 2,771 - 2,712 -

The extra-regio territory is made up of parts of the economic territory of a country which cannot be assigned to a single region. It consists of the national air-space, territorial waters and the continental shelf lying in international waters over which the country enjoys exclusive rights, territorial exclaves, deposits of oil, natural gas etc. worked by resident units. Until 2011, the gross value added (GVA) produced in the extra-regio was allocated pro-rata to the inhabited regions of the country concerned. The order of magnitude of the extra-regio GVA depends in particular on the resource endowment in terms of natural gas and oil. In 2011, Member States and the European Commission agreed to give countries the possibility to calculate regional GDP also for the extra-regio. The resulting GDP is available only in absolute values, because the extra-regio territory by definition does not have a resident population.

See also

Other administrative divisions

References

  1. ↑ "National structures". Eurostat. Archived from the original on 13 July 2014. Retrieved 6 December 2011.
  2. 1 2 3 "Speciale Referendum 2006". la Repubblica. 26 June 2006. Retrieved 6 December 2011.
  3. ↑ "Population Italian Regions". tuttitalia.it.
  4. ↑ "Sub-national HDI - Area Database - Global Data Lab". hdi.globaldatalab.org.
  5. ↑ "Italian Comuni". tuttitalia.it.
  6. ↑ "Valle d'Aosta: Nicoletta Spelgatti (Lega) nuovo presidente Regione". Regioni.it (in Italian). 27 June 2018.
  7. ↑ Pinto, Luciano Torrente-Paolo Strazzullo-Roberto. "Statuti Regionali - Casa Editrice: Edizioni Simone". www.simone.it.
  8. ↑ LL.M., Prof. Dr. Axel Tschentscher,. "ICL - Italy - Constitution". servat.unibe.ch.
  9. ↑ Report RAI - Le regioni a statuto speciale (Italian), retrieved 21st Jan 2009 Archived 2009-03-22 at the Wayback Machine.,
  10. ↑ Hiroko Kudo, “Autonomy and Managerial Innovation in Italian Regions after Constitutional Reform”, Chuo University, Faculty of Law and Graduate School of Public Policy (2008): p. 1. Retrieved on April 6, 2012 from http://www.med-eu.org/proceedings/MED1/Kudo.pdf Archived 2015-11-17 at the Wayback Machine..
  11. ↑ "senato.it - XVII Legislatura - Senatori eletti nella regione Piemonte". www.senato.it.
  12. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 "GDP per capita in the EU in 2011" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2014-03-07.
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