Deconstructing the "débat public"?

After French law was passed, Italian academia and local governments started looking at the French experience with interest. The first case of débat public in Italy occurred in Montaione, near Florence, where the transformation of Castelfalfi’s medieval village into a touristic resort was discussed (Bobbio, 2010). At the end of the same year, Tuscany passed a Regional Law (n. 69/2007), which introduced the "débat public on big interventions". From 2007 to 2016-2018, the State was absent. Débats publics were usually started by local governments, either as one-shot events with some flimsy context-specific regulation or under regional legislation. An example of the first case is the well-known débat public which took place in 2008 in Genoa and concerned the so-called Gronda, a new highway section […] which doubles the section of the current A10 in the part which crosses the city of Genoa¹. Examples of the second cases are the two débats publics implemented in Tuscany under Regional Law n. 46/2013 which replaced the above-mentioned Law n. 69/2007. These debates were about the port in Livorno and the utilization of chalk for the restoration of extractive activities sites in Gavorrano. In some cases, cities which implemented débats publics later decided to pass city regulations about these mechanisms. This is what happened in Genoa, which passed a regulation in 2011. In addition, Milan saw the implementation of a débat public in 2018 which concerned the re-opening of five sections of the Navigli, Milan’s interconnected canals. In 2021, the City Council of Milan passed a new regulation about participation, which also regulated the city’s débats publics. Incidentally, when the Navigli débat public was implemented in Milan, legislation concerning national débats publics had already come into force.

In 2016, indeed, Italy began regulating débats publics at the national level. The first step was Legislative Decree n. 50/2016, also known as “public contracts Code”. Article 22 of the Legislative Decree n. 50/2016 mentioned a future Prime Minister’s Decree aiming to introduce criteria for a mandatory débat public process for major infrastructural and architectural works of social relevance and having an impact on the environment, as well as to establish the methodology for the implementation of the débat public. The Prime Minister’s Decree arrived in 2018. It stated each débat public could have a maximum duration of four months, starting from the moment project’s dossier was published. The procedure consisted of "information, close examination, discussion and conflicts management meetings, and collection of proposals and positions coming from citizens, associations, institutions" (Article 8). The procedure had a two-step conclusion. First, the débat public’s coordinator presented a final report on the course of the whole procedure. Second, after receiving the final report, public administrations or bodies in charge had two months to present their final dossier. Importantly, the Decree also established the National Commission for débat public as having monitoring, methodological suggestion, guarantee and organizational functions.

The new national legislation concerning the débat public seems to come from a vision of citizen participation in which participation is considered enemy of public administration’s efficiency and speed. It is hard not to acknowledge that the débat public at the national level has recently lost force. However, the possibility for sub-national bodies to implement débats publics following procedures which are closer to the original French version remains and this possibility is based on either regional laws, municipal legislation, or one-shot initiatives.