European sustainable development rural actor database

Administrative organization

Form of State: federal/regional State.
The new Article 177 of the Constitution gives the state exclusive legislative powers in the following areas:

• state foreign policy and international relations
• state relations with the European Union
• the right of asylum and the legal status of non-EU citizens
• immigration
• relations with religious groups
• defence and the armed services
• money, savings and financial markets, the tax system and fiscal equalisation
• state bodies
• election of the European Parliament
• state administration
• law and order and security
• citizenship
• civil status
• criminal, civil and administrative justice
• determination of minimum standards of civil and social rights
• general education standards
• social security
• electoral legislation
• main bodies and functions of municipalities
• provinces and metropolitan areas
• customs
• coordination of the statistical and information system, environment and cultural heritage.

The state exercises concurrent legislative power with the regions in a number of other areas:

• regional international relations and relations with the European Union
• foreign trade
• job protection and industrial safety
• education
• scientific research
• protection of health
• food
• sport
• civil protection
• town planning
• civil ports and airports
• development of cultural and environmental resources
• large-scale transport and navigation networks
• energy

Interesting ministries:

• Ministry for Agriculture and Forestry Policies. Minister: M. Paolo De Castro. In charge of rural development.
• Ministry of the Environment and the Protection of the Territory. Minister: M. Alfonso Pecoraro Scanio. Responsible for sustainable development.
• Regional affairs and Local Government. Minister without portfolio: Mme Linda Lanzillotta.

Total public expenditure: € 683.7 billions = 48.2% GDP.
Sub-national public expenditure: € 218.5 billions = 15.4% GDP = 32% total public expenditure.

Rural life

Utilized agricultural area: 48.8% total area, i.e. about 147,016 km2.
Rural population: 32.4% total population.
Labour force in agriculture: 1,159,000 Annual Work Units (AWU).
Unemployment rate by degree of urbanisation:

• Densely populated areas: 8.2%
• Intermediate areas: 7.3%
• Thinly populated areas: 8.2%

Employment rate by degree of urbanisation:

• Densely populated areas: 57.7%
• Intermediate areas: 58.1%
• Thinly populated areas: 55.7%

Youth unemployment ratio by degree of urbanisation:

• Densely populated areas: 8.4%
• Intermediate areas: 7.7%
• Thinly populated areas: 8.1%
• Total: 8.1%

Share of organic area in total utilised agricultural area: 8.4%.

Sustainability

The Italian National Environmental Strategy for Sustainable Development (NESSD) was approved by the Inter-ministerial Committee for Economic Planning (CIPE) on the 2nd August 2002 and is currently in its implementation phase. The NESSD focuses mainly on environmental matters. The driving element for sustainability and for the definition of targets is essentially a decoupling between economic growth and pressure on the use of natural resources and on the environment, especially in agriculture, power and transport sectors. The Italian NSDS contains four broad priority themes, the same as stated in the EU’s 6th Environmental Action Plan:

• climate Change and stratospheric ozone
• protection and sustainable valorisation of nature and biodiversity
• quality of the environment and quality of life in urban areas
• exploitation of resources and waste generation

Furthermore, the search for more policy coherence through integrated environmental policies is one of the explicit aims of the NSDS.
At sub-national level local Agenda21 strategies (co-financed by the Ministry of Environment) and regional SD strategy exist. The spread of such instruments is one of the objectives of the State-Region Permanent Conference. These subnational planning and policy processes are in line with the National SDS.
The Ministry of Environment is politically responsible for the implementation of the SDS, but Ministries, Environmental NGOs, Trade Unions, Enterprises, and local authorities are all involved in the implementation of the Strategy.
Environmental protection expenditure in the public sector: 0.8 % of GDP, i.e. 175 € per capita.
Government expenditure on environment protection, in % of GDP: 0.8%.
Government expenditure on environment protection, in % of total government expenditure: 1.7%.
Area protected under the Habitats Directive as a percentage of total area: 13.9%.