This article investigates the relationship between Competition Law and recent reforms in local public services in Italy, with specific focus on role of the Italian competition authority, autorità garante per la concorrenza e il mercato.
To this aim, the author summarizes the main features of current legislation, and illustrates the suitable organizational schemes in light of basic rules governing services of general interest in the EU.
In this perspective, the implementation of both the general normative framework and most recent innovations in the Italian legislation shows several inconsistencies with the requirements set out by the EU Competition Law.They are identification of relevant markets, separation of public ownership and management, competition for the market as a pre-condition for the creation of competitive markets, neutral and independent market regulators. Because such elements are essential to competitive public services under the EU Law, the author questions the adequacy of the Italian constitutional and traditional (but still in force) statute-law frameworks for the provision of public services by local governments. On top of this, he compares the poor implementation of competition rules in local public services with liberalizations at the national level. Although they are not all success stories, implementation of effective competition was made possible only by systematic use of market analysis, and only when a relevant market was identified.
In this respect, the article emphasizes fragmentation of local authorities and lack of coordination with the national competition authority as the main obstacles to a full implementation of the EU organizational schemes for efficient local public services.