The document provides an overview of the legislative process for drafting and passing bills in Italy. It explains that draft bills are proposals for new laws or changes to existing laws that are debated in Parliament. Draft bills can be introduced by members of Parliament, the government, regional councils, or citizens through a popular initiative. The bills are then assigned to committees for review before being debated and potentially passed by both houses of Parliament. If changes are made in the second house, the bill goes through another round of debate and voting. Approved bills are then published and signed into law by the President.

1. REVEALING THE MYSTERIES
OF THE DRAFT BILLS
September 2017

2. WHAT IS A DRAFT BILL?
It is a proposal for a new law, or a proposal to change an existing
law, divided into sections and preceded by a preamble, submitted for
debate by the Houses of Parliament.
It can be introduced by:
every member of Parliament, by the Government, or by at least
50,000 voters – art. 71 of the Constitution of the Italian Republic;
the National Council for Economic Affairs and Labour (CNEL)-
art. 99, comma three of the Constitution;
a Regional Council – art. 121, comma two of the Constitution.

3. FUN FACT
In general, the term draft legis-
lation is used when reference
is made without distinction, to all
legislative initiatives.
ProposalsbytheGovernment
are call draft bills only when
they are introduced in the
Chamber of Deputies; all the
others are called legislative
proposals.
The term draft bill is used by
the Senate for all legislative
initiatives.

4. KEEP AN EYE ON ITS LANGUAGE AND STRUCTURE!
A regulatory text must be concise, without semantic or syntactic
ambiguities; it must be simple, precise, and have coherent contents. It
must also be accurate when referring to normative references.
The Chairs of the Chamber and Senate, in agreement with the
Prime Minister, have issued a circular note entitled “Rules and
recommendations regarding the drafting of regulatory texts”. Specific
offices in both Houses are responsible for applying it to draft bills.
It may be necessary to make formal adjustments or coordination
changes during approval of a draft bill, in two cases in particular: either
if the text is complex or numerous amendments have been approved.

5. FIGURES... FIGURES: JUST HOW MANY
During the current seven-
teenth legislature, which be-
gan on 15 March 2013, 7,135
draft bills have been intro-
duced, of which a whopping
3,108 in 2013 alone.
This happens at the start
of every legislature when
the draft bills that were not
passed are re-introduced.
Most of the them are introduced by
MPs (6,627, of which 4,182 introduced
in the Chamber of Deputies and 2,674
in the Senate); 390 are introduced by
theGovernment,71bytheRegions,41
by popular initiative, and 6 by CNEL.
Not all draft bills are adopted and
become law.
Since the beginning of the legislature
Parliament has approved 327 draft
bills.

6. FIGURES... FIGURES: HOW LONG?
None of the six draft bills
introduced by the CNEL have
been approved.
The average time it takes to approve a
draftbillintroducedbyMPsis314days
(Senate) and 271 days (Chamber of
Deputies), against “just” 97 and 57
days for government draft bills.
Draft bills introduced by Regions are
usually approved in 106 days by the
Senate and 75 days by the Chamber
of Deputies.
Popular initiative draft bills are
approved in 71 days by the Senate
and a rather lengthy 295 days by the
Chamber of Deputies.

7. AFTER INTRODUCTION...
Draft bills are printed and distributed as quickly as possible and
simultaneously published on the website of either the Chamber or
Senate, depending where they were introduced. Members of the
Assembly are informed about the introduction of a draft bill when they
see it mentioned in the general daily agenda.
Draft bills are assigned a sequence number, in two separate series
for the Senate and the Chamber. Numbers start from zero at the
beginning of each legislature. When a draft bill is approved by one
branch of Parliament and transmitted to the other it is assigned a new
number of its respective series; in the next, possible transmission it
will always maintain the numbers assigned by the two branches.
At this point the draft bill is ready to embark on the procedure that will
turn it into a law of the State: the legislative procedure.

8. ASSIGNING THE BILL TO A COMMITTEE
After the draft bill has been announced to the assembly of the branch of
Parliament where it has been introduced, it is assigned to a Standing
Committee responsible for examining the issue to which it refers. One
MP, usually from the majority party, becomes the rapporteur.
The ordinary procedure is divided into two stages:
scrutinybytheCommitteeresponsiblefordraftingadocumentreview
and preliminary assessment and also preparing a text for debate in
the Assembly (thus its name, referral Committee);
debate and deliberation by the Assembly.

9. THE REFERRAL COMMITTEE
The Committee members ex-
press the position of their
political parties regarding the
contents of the measure and
propose amendments that
are then debated by the Com-
mittee. During the scrutiny,
the Committee also gathers
opinions (consultation) from
other Committees which may
make suggestions regarding
the parts for which they are
competent.
Government bodies and private indi-
viduals can provide opinions and data
during hearings with the Committee if the
latter deems said opinions and data nec-
essary to scrutiny the draft bill.
When the Committee has completed
its task, the rapporteur prepares a report
for the House; the report contains the
text proposed by the Committee and,
possibly, reports by minority groups.

10. SCRUTINY BY THE ASSEMBLY
The debate in the House starts with a presentation by the rapporteur
followed by a presentation by the Government representative;
parliamentarians then speak on the general issue of the measure in
question and express the position of their groups.
After that, each article of the draft bill is examined and a vote taken
regarding the amendments drafted by the Committee.
The final stage involves approval of the draft bill after a review of any
agenda items (i.e., documents drafted by the Government regarding
how the future law will be implemented) and explanations of vote
regarding the measure.

11. Apartfromtheordinaryprocedure,twosimplified/shortenedprocedures
are envisaged:
legislative (or deliberative) procedure, entirely completed by the
Committee that executes the scrutiny and final approval of the draft bill;
compilation procedure, the House approves the draft bill whose
articles have been drafted by the Committee, but cannot make
changes to the text.
SIMPLIFIED AND SHORTENED PROCEDURES

12. A draft bill already approved by one House is scrutinised by the other
House using the same procedure.
If after the first reading by both Houses the draft bill returns to one
Housebecausetheotherhasmademorechanges,thesecondreading
will only focus on the parts that have been changed.
In Italy’s perfect bicameral system, the shuttle between the Chamber
of Deputies and the Senate continues until the two houses agree on a
perfectly identical text.
SCRUTINY OF THE DRAFT BILLS ALREADY
APPROVED BY THE OTHER HOUSE

13. ItistheresponsibilityofParliament
to then summarise and condense
all the specific interests.
Lobbyists work so that the
requests of their interested
parties, organisation or clients
are presented and taken into
consideration by the public
decision-maker.
AND WHAT DO LOBBYISTS DO?

14. Lobbyists:
study the original text of the draft bill and identify areas where it is
possible to intervene;
meet the rapporteur and representatives of the parliamentary
groups in the referral Committee, and -if deemed useful- also in the
Committees that will issue an opinion, to present the position of their
clients and any possible critical areas they have identified;
present proposal of amendments – accompanied by an explanatory
note – and arrange their organisation or client participation in
parliamentary hearings.
Lobbying continues while the Assembly examines the draft bill and,
later, in the other branch of Parliament. Remember that the second
reading procedure (restricted to the parts that have been modified)
limits the possibility to modify the text only to the parts that have
last been changed.
AND HOW DO LOBBYISTS WORK?

15. The Constitution (art. 138) envisages a reinforced procedure
for the approval of draft bills revising the Constitution as well as
constitutional draft bills.
In fact, these draft bills have to be approved by both Houses during
two separate votes (the second with an absolute majority) at an
interval of not less than three months. Article 72 of the Constitution
excludes the possibility that constitutional bills be approved by the
Committees using the legislative procedure.
Within three months of their publication a confirmative referendum
can be requested by one/fifths of the members of a House, five
hundred thousand voters or five Regional Councils. In this case the
law is promulgated only if it is approved by a majority of valid votes. It
is not possible to request a referendum if the law has been approved
by two-thirds of the members of each House in the second voting.
continued
THE CONSTITUTIONAL BILL

16. On 12 April 2016 Parliament
approved a proposal to revi-
se the Constitution that envi-
saged, amongst other things,
the abolition of the perfect
bicameral system and a
reduction in the number of
MPs (the so-called Boschi
Law).
A confirmative referendum was re-
quested based on a parliamentary ini-
tiative and petition since the law had
not been approved by a two-thirds ma-
jority. The reform was rejected by ap-
proximately 60% of voters during the
consultative referendum held on 4 De-
cember 2016; as a result, the reform
did not enter into force.
THE CONSTITUTIONAL BILL

17. Promulgation is the act by which the President of the Republic certifies
that a text has been approved by Parliament and orders it be published
and respected.
Promulgation must take place within one month of the final approval
of the law. But the President of the Republic can send the law back to
the Houses, together with a reasoned opinion, and request that the law
be considered anew.
This action by the President reopens the legislative procedure; if the
law is approved again it must be promulgated.
FINAL STEPS: PROMULGATION AND…

18. The law is published after promulgation.
Publication of the law is entrusted to the Minister of Justice and
technically involves inserting the text in the Official Compilation of
the regulatory acts of the Italian Republic as well as publishing the
law in the Official Journal of the Italian Republic.
The law comes into force on the fifteenth day after publication in the
Official Journal unless the law establishes a different deadline.
PUBLICATION

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