BackThe Italian government approved a new financial law (Legge Finanziaria) for 2010, according to which towns will have to abolish their local Ombudsman institutions. Due to a vote of confidence this new law passed without public discussion. As a consequence, all local Ombudsman institutions will gradually cease to exist as the offices will no longer be re-assigned after the next election of the corresponding city council. The government justified this step with the necessity of reducing costs as other positions in the city council would be abolished as well.
Italy does not have a national Ombudsman institution and regional Ombudsman institutions only exist in some parts of the country. Therefore, specifically in regions such as Sicily, Umbria, Friuli Venezia Giulia, Puglia, Calabria or Sardinia, local Ombudsman institutions are of major importance to the public. The new regulation will specifically concern the weakest members of Italian society who usually do not address the Ombudsman of the Region or Province and who will no longer be able to address their local ombudsman.
The financial argument put forward by the Government does however not take into account how much money is saved by simply avoiding legal proceedings through the mediation work of an Ombudsman. Furthermore, some regions such as Tuscany, Veneto, Emilia-Romagna and Lombardy already agreed on cutting costs by establishing one single Ombudsman institution to represent several towns of the region.
It can also be assumed that this new regulation violates the Italian Constitution. According to the Italian constitution Italian towns are granted autonomy and can therefore provide the legal basis for an Ombudsman institution through their local constitution.
Since Italy does not have the legal basis to introduce a national Ombudsman and local Ombudsman institutions have been introduced according to local constitutions, not all local Ombudsman institutions have the same standard as regards impartiality and independence. However, the majority of local Ombudsman institutions does fulfil these requirements. Unfortunately the new law comes at a moment when local Ombudsman institutions started establishing an effective network with the Coordination of Regional Ombudsman and cooperation was flourishing.
Vittorio Gasparrini
Office of the Ombudsman of the Tuscany Region
Ombudsman of the Towns of Figline Incisa and Rignano, Florence Italy
Member of the Executive Board of the European Ombudsman Institute
