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International Conference on Electronic Government and the Information Systems Perspective

EGOVIS 2015: Electronic Government and the Information Systems Perspective pp 271–286Cite as

Italian Open Government Strategy in National and Regional Regulation

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Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNISA,volume 9265))

Abstract

In Italy, the division of legislative functions between the central State and the Regions, set out in the Constitution, has allowed the approval of significant Regional open data regulations along with the national laws. In the last few years the national legislators have issued specific provisions requiring open data to be published and regulated by public authorities. Next to State-issued legislation, some Regions have put in place their own regulations concerning open data and open government, providing for organization and implementation actions both within the administrations and externally, in their interactions with citizens and businesses. National and regional open data regulations have established a virtuous balance, allowing the State to outline the consistent rules necessary to carry out the coordination function attributed to it under the Constitution, and the Regions to play a guiding role in making the digitization of administrative procedures a coordinated process, shared among local public bodies.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The term e-government refers to the organization of the public administration’s activities based on the extensive and integrated adoption of ICT in the performance of their functions and the provision of services, in order to ensure effective actions, increase users’ satisfaction, strengthen the democratic process and support public policies.

  2. 2.

    Cf. Barack Obama, “Memorandum for the Heads of Executive Departments and Agencies on Transparency and Open Government” of 21 January 2009 and “Open Government Directive” of 8 December 2009, http://www.whitehouse.gov/open/about/policy.

  3. 3.

    In this respect, the process in Europe started in 2009 with the Open Declaration on European Public Services, sponsored by a group of citizens and associations, which set out the principles of transparency, participation and empowerment, the foundation pillars of open government. The contents of the declaration were reiterated in the Declaration of Malmö of 2009, which sets among the objectives for 2015 the development of user-centric services, the engagement of civil society and stakeholders, increased availability of public information and data for re-use, the transparency of administrative processes and the promotion of active participation [4].

  4. 4.

    The Europe 2020 Strategy is aimed at driving intelligent, sustainable and inclusive growth through the achievement by 2020 of employment, productivity and social cohesion goals. The European Digital Agenda is conceived to establish a key role for ICT in achieving the European objectives, and aims to make the most of the potential of these technologies to promote innovation, economic growth and progress.

  5. 5.

    Cf. European Commission, Communication “The European e-Government Action Plan 2011-2015 - Harnessing ICT to promote smart, sustainable and innovative Government” - COM(2010) 743 final, 15 December 2010. The Plan forms part of the 2020 Digital Agenda.

  6. 6.

    Cf. European Commission, Communication “Open data. An engine for innovation, growth and transparent governance” - COM(2011) 822 final, 12 December 2011.

  7. 7.

    On June 18, 2013, the G8 leaders signed the policy paper “Open Data Charter and Technical Annex”, which sets out five strategic policy principles for making information open to the public: (1) Open Data by Default; (2) Quality and Quantity; (3) Usable by All; (4) Releasing Data for Improved Governance; (5) Releasing Data for Innovation.

  8. 8.

    In 2011, the Italian Government asked to participate in the international initiative Open Government Partnership (OGP), aimed at promoting government transparency through the active participation of citizens, trade associations and businesses. In the same year the Government launched a national portal dedicated to open data (www.dati.gov.it).

  9. 9.

    Article 47 of the Simplifications Decree.

  10. 10.

    Constitutional Court Judgement no. 17 of 16 January 2004, also referred to in Const. Court Judgement no. 398 of 1 December 2006.

  11. 11.

    Constitutional Court Judgement no. 31 of 26 January 2005, also referred to in Const. Court Judgement no. 133 of 14 May 2008.

  12. 12.

    As shall be discussed further in this document, this area is under the exclusive legislative jurisdiction of the Regions.

  13. 13.

    Constitutional Court Judgement no. 31 of 26 January 2005.

  14. 14.

    Constitutional Court Judgement no. 50 of 28 January 2005.

  15. 15.

    Constitutional Court Judgement no. 271 of 7 July 2005.

  16. 16.

    In fact, only the “legal framework and administrative organization of the State and national public bodies” are placed under the exclusive legislative jurisdiction of the State (article 117, paragraph 2 g) of the Italian Constitution).

  17. 17.

    Article 14, paragraph 1 of Legislative Decree no. 82/2005. The digitization model outlined in the code provides for the “participation” of the different Government levels (State, Regions, local bodies): for this purpose, the code envisages the promotion of understandings and agreements, interregional cooperation, and the establishment of entities tasked with cooperating with the Regions and local bodies (Article 14, paragraphs 2 and 3 of Legislative Decree no. 82/2005).

  18. 18.

    Article 14, paragraph 2-bis of Legislative Decree no. 82/2005.

  19. 19.

    With reference to the open data produced by public authorities, a more specific term is open government data.

  20. 20.

    According to the Open Knowledge Foundation (http://okfn.org) a piece of content or data is open if anyone is free to use, re-use, and redistributed it - subject only, at most - to the requirement to attribute and share alike.

  21. 21.

    The owner of the data is the public administration of public law entity that originally developed for its own use or requested another public or private entity to develop the document that represents the data, or has access to said document. A licence is a contract or other instrument in which are set forth the terms and conditions for reuse of the data (art. 2, paragraph 1 (i) and (h), Legislative Decree no. 36/2006). A distinction to be made among licences is between free and closed licenses. This refers to the different rights granted to users of a work covered by copyright in accordance with Law no. 633/1941: rather than determining the limits of usability of the data, they tend to grant a series of rights to those who come into possession of the information. This model is based on “some rights reserved” and is sometimes referred to as copyleft, as opposed to copyright. Among the open licences most commonly used in Italy, we should mention Creative Commons (CC) (http://www.creativecommons.it/) and Italian Open Data Licences (IODL) (http://www.dati.gov.it/iodl/2.0) [1].

  22. 22.

    Art. 47, paragraph 2-bis (b), Law Decree no. 5/2012 as amended and converted into Law no. 35/2012.

  23. 23.

    Subsequently, art. 18 of Law Decree no. 83/2012, as amended and converted into Law no. 134/2012, significantly entitled “Open Administration” (which was later repealed and its content was merged into the Transparency Decree), introduced the obligation, with specific responsibilities and penalties, to publish in open format certain types of particularly important information (the concession of grants, contributions, benefits and financial aid to businesses and the attribution of fees and remuneration to individuals, professionals, private businesses and entities, or otherwise of economic benefits of whatever nature to public and private entities).

  24. 24.

    Additionally, the regulation introduces the definition of “open data format”, i.e. a data format made public, exhaustively documented and neutral with respect to the technological means required to use the data (art. 68, paragraph 3 (a), Legislative Decree no. 82/2005), as well as the definition of “reuse” as use of the data as set out in art. 2, paragraph 1 (e) of Legislative Decree no. 36/2006, i.e. use of data owned by a public authority or a public law entity by natural or legal persons, for commercial or non-commercial purposes other than the initial purposes for which the document representing the data was produced for institutional purposes (art. 1, paragraph 1 n-bis), Legislative Decree no. 82/2005).

  25. 25.

    The obligation concerns all the parties to whom the Digital Administration Code applies, as set out in art. 2, paragraph 2, Legislative Decree no. 82/2005.

  26. 26.

    Article 52, paragraph 1 of Legislative Decree no. 82/2005.

  27. 27.

    Reference to “open data by default” is also made in the government portal Dati.gov at http://www.dati.gov.it/content/parte-lopen-data-default (communication of 19 March 2013). It bears pointing out that there needs to be compliance with all applicable provisions of law (with their exclusions and limitations), especially as concerns privacy; intellectual property (including industrial property); public safety and security; state, administrative and statistical confidentiality; and that includes compliance with the legal provisions specific to the subject area at hand (e.g. environmental law).

  28. 28.

    Article 52, paragraph 2 of Legislative Decree no. 82/2005.

  29. 29.

    The website of the Digital Italy Agency – AgID is http://www.agid.gov.it.

  30. 30.

    The Agency is assigned specific tasks to be performed on an annual basis: the National Agenda, in which it defines the content and objectives of the policies for the enhancement of public information, and an annual report on the status of the enhancement process in the country. Alongside its strategic functions, the Agency is also assigned a technical role, as it is tasked with the definition and annual updating of the national guidelines that identify the technical standards, including the determination of the ontologies of the services and data, the procedures and methods for implementing the provisions with a view to making the process consistent nationwide, efficient and effective (Article 52, paragraphs 5, 6 and 7, Legislative Decree no. 82/2005).

  31. 31.

    Cf. footnote 24.

  32. 32.

    In this analysis I will only be concerned with law, looking at the main regional laws, without taking account of administrative regulations, such as regional resolutions.

  33. 33.

    Article 2, Piedmont Regional law no. 24/2011.

  34. 34.

    The Piedmont Regional law prescribes the need for open formats according to international standards, free accessibility via the Internet, and reusability through licences allowing use also for commercial purposes and for profit, guaranteeing equal treatment to reusers and complying with the limits and exceptions set out in the national regulations (Article 3, Piedmont Regional law no. 24/2011).

  35. 35.

    Articles 4 and 5, Piedmont Regional law no. 24/2011.

  36. 36.

    Article 1, Apulia Regional law no. 20/2012.

  37. 37.

    Article 11, Lazio Regional law no. 7/2012.

  38. 38.

    E.g. courses for personnel of public and private entities, initiatives for the hiring and development of young people and women, as well as individuals belonging to disadvantaged social groups and minorities.

  39. 39.

    Article 8, Lazio Regional law no. 7/2012.

  40. 40.

    Article 9, Lazio Regional law no. 7/2012. To test the efficiency and effectiveness of the tools provided by these regulations, the Lazio Region undertakes to review the law within one year and to publish the results and any proposed changes through public consultations (Article 14, paragraph 2, Lazio Regional law no. 7/2012).

  41. 41.

    Article 4, Campania Regional law no. 14/2013.

  42. 42.

    The data sets will be “encoded and classified preferably as linked open data, so as to ensure they are linked to other data sets to increase the value of correlated data.” (Article 5, Campania Regional law no. 14/2013).

  43. 43.

    Article 1, Friuli Venezia Giulia Regional law no. 7/2014.

  44. 44.

    Articles 4 and 5, Tuscany Regional law no. 19/2015.

  45. 45.

    Article 5, paragraphs 4 and 5, Tuscany Regional law no. 19/2015.

  46. 46.

    Article 6, Tuscany Regional law no. 19/2015.

  47. 47.

    Article 3, Tuscany Regional law no. 19/2015.

  48. 48.

    Article 4, Tuscany Regional law no. 19/2015.

  49. 49.

    Article 7, paragraphs 2 and 3, Tuscany Regional law no. 19/2015.

  50. 50.

    Articles 7 and 8, Tuscany Regional law no. 19/2015.

  51. 51.

    Article 14, paragraph 2-bis of Legislative Decree no. 82/2005.

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Acknowledgements

I should like to thank the 30th edition of the Ph.D. Programme in Legal Studies offered by the University of Bologna, under which I have conducted this research, as well as Tuscany Region, for which I am working.

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  1. CIRSFID - Interdepartmental Centre for Research in the History, Philosophy and Sociology of Law and in Legal Informatics, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy

    Fernanda Faini

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Correspondence to Fernanda Faini .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Corvinus University of Budapest, Budapest, Hungary

    Andrea Kő

  2. Institute of Legal Information Theory and Techniques, Florence, Italy

    Enrico Francesconi

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Faini, F. (2015). Italian Open Government Strategy in National and Regional Regulation. In: Kő, A., Francesconi, E. (eds) Electronic Government and the Information Systems Perspective. EGOVIS 2015. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 9265. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-22389-6_20

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-22389-6_20

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