The “Milleproroghe” is a Decree Law setting out “urgent measures on the extension of legislative. It is a piece of legislation postponing several already legislated deadlines and extending the validity of several provisions in expiration

1. THE ‘MILLEPROROGHE’
What it is, what it contains
and curious facts about this
omnibus Decree
March 2020

2. The “Milleproroghe” (thousand extensions) is a Decree Law
setting out
urgent measures on the extension of legislative terms
It is a piece of legislation postponing several already legislated
deadlines and extending the validity of several provisions in
expiration.
It is one of those so-called ‘omnibus’ Decrees because it
includes rules regulating highly diverse situations and sectors
that are only formally connected. What is more, while the
Parliament is working on converting it into law, additional
micro-rules are traditionally added on a wide range of topics.
What is the ‘Milleproroghe’?

3. An exception to the rule
The ‘Milleproroghe’ is adopted by the Council of Ministers at the end of the year, just after finishing
work on the Budget Law. Often the measures that were excluded from the Budget flow into it.
The only exception was in 2018, during the first Conte Government, when the Decree was adopted in
July and was definitively passed in September.

4. Decree Laws and
the conversion procedure
The Government meeting in the Council of Ministers, for
extraordinary reasons of necessity and urgency, adopts a
Decree Law (D-L) and transmits it to a branch of the
Parliament, of its own choosing, to convert it into Law.
In the meantime, the text of the D-L, adopted by the Council
of Ministers, gets published in the Official Journal and
enters into force according to the timeframe set out in the
text, acquiring the status of a full-fledged Law. However, if
within 60 days it is not passed and converted into law by
the Parliament, it loses its effectiveness from the first day
(ex tunc).
The procedure to pass a D-L is explained, step by step, in
this slideshare by Telos A&S à click here

5. The first in a long serieS
The first ’Milleproroghe’ Decree was passed in 2005 during the
Berlusconi government in order to postpone the entry into force of
some measures and to extend a series of terms and other deadlines
that were to elapse at the end of the year.
Although it first came about as an exceptional measure, it has now
become a fixture of the process. In fact, since 2005 every year, with
the exception of 2016 and 2017, all the governments that have
followed have passed a ‘Milleproroghe’.

6. A controversial measure
What many people have wondered is: does the Milleproroghe D-L
really meet the criteria of “extraordinary cases of necessity and
urgency”?
From this standpoint, there are people who think it is an act that is
abused or even unlawful, especially when it contains measures
other than the deferment of legislative terms.
In his last book*, constitutional law expert Michele Ainis writes that
[…] the ‘Milleproroghe’ comes up every Christmas,
although every extension should constitute an exception.
*Ainis M., Demofollia. La Repubblica dei paradossi, La nave di Teseo, Milano 2019.

7. The Constitutional Court ordered to annul some measures
contained in the 2010 ‘Milleproroghe’ because they were clearly
‘not related to the substance and purposes of the same decree’.
For example, the Court declared Art. 2, paragraph 2-quater on
the ‘Institution of the National Civil Protection Service’
unconstitutional.
In both 2011 and in 2012 the President of the Republic, Giorgio
Napolitano, formally wrote to the Parliament and the Prime
Minister requesting that they curb the tendency to add all kinds
of rules during the process of its conversion into law.
The intervention of the
Constitutional Court and of the
President of the Republic

8. There are single measures that have registered a record number of extensions over the years. For example, we can see the
attribution of substitutive powers to Prefects in the event that budgets are not approved by the Local Administrations,
reiterated in the Decree, from 2005 to 2016.
The most recurrent issues in the measures contained in the ‘Milleproroghe’ are:
LABOUR
What are the ‘historic’ extensions?
INFRASTRUCTURE TRANSPORT

9. THE 2020 MILLEPROROGHE
One last thing. When the last ‘Milleproroghe’
was passed, it sparked a lot of polemic among
MPs because only one branch of Parliament
was given the opportunity to introduce
amendments.
The Senate played the role of notary, passing
the text approved by the Chamber of Deputies
with a confidence vote.
The ‘Milleproroghe’ was even passed this year, providing not
only for the deferment of some deadlines but also the
introduction of some measures not related to the extension of
terms, many of which were introduced by amendments.
Actually, about 2,000 amendments were submitted; however,
over 800 of them were declared inadmissible. And some
sparked polemic because they were believed to be ‘ad
personam’. Were these really extensions? Or were they signs
of political problems within the majority? For example:
• motorway concessions
• extension of the protected energy market
• extension of the term of the heads of Italy’s communication
authority AGCOM and the Data Protection Authority
• eco-bonuses for automobiles
We’ll leave it up to you to figure under what label of criticisms
these measures have been listed.

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