Do you know that the EU on justice promotes Cartabia and rejects Gratteri?
A recent EU report is a precious assist to the reform prepared by the Minister of Justice, Marta Cartabia. Here because. The article by Tino Oldani for Italy Today
The European Union is never tender with Italy when it comes to reforms. The recommendations that Brussels sends to Rome every year are almost always a long, well-documented list of promises made and not kept by the various governments. This has been the case for many years, especially due to the lack of reforms in the economic field. The same tone of severe reproach also characterizes the chapter dedicated to Italian justice in the first EU report on the rule of law, published shortly before the inauguration of Mario Draghi's government.
The radiography of our judicial system is very broad, and takes note of the positive and negative aspects. Among the former, he stresses "a solid legislative framework to safeguard the independence of the judiciary, including the independence of prosecutors". But then he lists numerous defects, first of all the lengthy trials, the real ball and chain of the Italian system. Hence yet another invitation to a justice reform that speeds up the processes, and to approve it quickly. Times that, after the many postponements of the past, are now exhaustively indicated in Mario Draghi's Pnrr , approved by Brussels: within this year.
In fact, the EU report is a valuable aid to the reform prepared by the Minister of Justice, Marta Cartabia. Consequently, if reread carefully, it constitutes a rejection of the thesis with which the prosecutor of Catanzaro, Nicola Gratteri, is trying to obstruct it. For Gratteri, cutting the times of trials risks making "50% of trials impossible, making it more convenient to commit a crime and endangering national security". For the EU, the exact opposite is true: what favors a series of crimes in Italy, especially corruption, is the malfunctioning of the judicial machine, the long time frames of justice. A serious anomaly compared to the European average, on whose responsibility the most prominent magistrates, those who usually attend talk-shows on TV, prefer to keep quiet or play the blame game.
In terms of efficiency, the EU report states: «The Italian judicial system continues to experience serious challenges relating to the length of proceedings. In the civil sector, the estimated time needed to resolve civil and commercial dispute cases remains among the highest in the EU. Italy remains under the enhanced control of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe also as regards the duration of the criminal proceedings ». The Cartabia reform, by establishing certain times, within which the different levels of judgment must be concluded with a sentence, in addition to indicating new temporary limits for the prescription, responds to these requests from the European Union.
Corruption chapter. The EU report recalls that, in its perception as a social problem, Italy ranks 15th in Europe and 51st globally. Not exciting places, which are confirmed by the 2020 Eurobarometer data: 88% of Italians consider corruption widespread (EU average 71%), 35% feel personally affected by it in daily life (EU average 26%). As for businesses, 91% believe corruption is widespread (EU average 63%), 54% believe it is a problem when doing business (EU average 37%), and just 25% believe that people and companies arrested for bribing a senior public official are adequately punished (EU average 31%).
Faced with the seriousness of the problem, the EU report argues that “efforts to fight corruption continue to be hampered by excessive prosecution times. In particular, at the level of appeal ». A passage, the latter, in favor of the certain times of the process indicated by the Cartabia reform, which, in response to Gratteri, specified that the crimes of mafia and terrorism will not go into prescription.
Further on, the EU report recognizes, however, that Italy has made progress in combating corruption: «Recently, higher levels of sanctions have been introduced for almost all crimes of active and passive corruption of national and foreign officials. The regime of ancillary sanctions was also strengthened, extending the lifelong ban and the ban on holding public offices for a wide range of corruption offenses. The Italian asset recovery regime, which includes both conviction-based confiscation and non-conviction confiscation, is widely recognized as a good practice internationally. "
The document of the EU Commission recalls that "the powers and capacity of the anti-corruption Authority (Anac) have been strengthened as regards its preventive role in the fight against corruption". A positive fact, he argues, but accompanied by a severe criticism against the new procurement code, which seems inspired by the Anac itself, whose powers have been limited compared to the past as the bureaucratic procedures, for unanimous judgment dictated by experience, they slowed down contracts of all kinds, to the point of preventing their execution.
The EU report states: «The decree law on administrative simplification and digitization measures adopted in July 2020 also introduced a special regime for the award of public tenders. The measures concern rapid procedures and direct awards, without official competition, simplified award procedures and sanctions for those who suspend or slow down the assignment and execution of public works, all things that risk promoting corruption ».
A judgment which, fortunately, the Draghi government is not taking the slightest into account: slowing down contracts with preventive bureaucratic hindrances, typical of the past, would lead to the sinking of the entire national plan for the recovery of the economy.
Article published on Italiaoggi.it
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/mondo/lo-sapete-che-lue-sulla-giustizia-promuove-cartabia-e-boccia-gratteri/ on Sun, 25 Jul 2021 06:02:33 +0000.