Juridical framework of voluntary agreements in Italy and policy relevance at the local level

This paper investigates the existing Italian regulation regarding the so-called "administration by agreements" and the possibility to adapt the existing legal system to voluntary agreements in the environmental field in the light of the European guidelines on this issue. The research consists of two parts. The first one presents a valuation of the Italian public administration system and a comparison of the relevant laws. It also discusses the principles of "subsidiarity", flexibility and administrative simplification. The second part is aimed at highlighting the results of an empirical study of some selected voluntary agreements signed by Italian local and regional administrations with the private sector. This empirical part relies on a general survey carried out by Feem with the aid of questionnaires addressed both to public and private sectors. The paper assesses a number of existing environmental voluntary agreements in the light of the check-list suggested by the European Commission in its Communication on environmental agreements (COM(96) 561 final, 27/11/96). It also illustrates that in Italy there is no univocal definition of "voluntary agreements" and no "ad hoc" legal framework for regulating them. Nowadays, the only definition of "voluntary agreements" as such is provided in the Ronchi Decree and it is specifically related to the waste sector. Moreover both the Ronchi Decree and the recent Legislative Decree no.152/99 on water protection stimulate public authorities to promote and sign voluntary agreements. As the research shows, the absence of a legal framework of reference leads public administrations to stipulate voluntary agreements having the form of "protocol of intent", which is a common policy instrument without any binding juridical structure. However, it is now recognised by those public administrations and private parties having experience in co-operating together that a more formal structure for voluntary agreements is important in order to ensure their transparency and effectiveness as policy instruments. This need is also confirmed by the law project proposed in 1999 at the Italian Chamber of Deputie

Green national accounting: Synthesising and extending the welfare based and sustainability-standard based approaches

This paper examines the theoretical foundations of Green National Accounting, noting that their assumptions have led to green national income measuring welfare-based income, which is not necessarily equal to sustainable income. We review two major approaches to estimating green accounting: the welfare-based GARP approach provides the values of environmental damage to estimate the net welfare generated by economic activity and the GREENSTAMP approach calculates the economic output compatible with achieving environmental sustainability. Both approaches deliver policy-relevant information and a comparison of the results obtained using both methods illustrates this. The GARP approach facilitates the identification of efficient level of environmental protection, while the GREENSTAMP approach identifies the costs of meeting sustainable standards. These distinct advantages suggest that the two approaches could be fruitfully synthesised, and this paper outlines how this could be achieved. The appropriate choice is likely to be informed by the results of the current revision of the UN SEEA

Towards an analytical strategic environmental assessment : the ANSEA network

The objective of the Analytical Strategic Environmental Assessment method is to provide a complementary and decision-centred approach to the SEA process. The focus is to evaluate the decision-making process instead of the quantitative output of an assessment. Thus, the project provides a methodology and the relevant tools to analyse and assess the decision-making process of policies, plans and programmes (PPP). By considering the whole decision-making process, decisions most critical to the environmental impact of PPP can be identified. The ANSEA approach is designed to be used as an objective and transparent approach to ensure that environmental considerations are taken into account, or as an evaluation of how far environmental integration has been achieved in decision making processes