As promised in the last print issue of ilNewyorkese, as a Member of the Italian Republic elected in North and Central America, I will regularly inform on these pages the Italian community in New York and North and Central America about the work I am doing in Parliament for Italians abroad and for the policies of our country.
Since the last issue, there have been several legislative changes affecting Italians abroad. The most important was undoubtedly the approval in July in the Chamber of Deputies, of the Democratic Party deputies’ bill aimed at strengthening consular services in favor of Italian citizens living abroad of which I was the author from the beginning. Thanks to the work of the last few months, the proposal found bipartisan support that led to its unanimous approval by the House – a great achievement for all Italians around the world. In fact, the proposal represents a small revolution for consular services: it provides for 4 million euros to be distributed to consulates each year for the improvement and efficiency of consular services; funds that will go directly to individual consular offices and can be used for efficiency-boosting choices at the discretion of the consular offices themselves. The proposal is also revolutionary because it introduces a factor of reward and efficiency in public administration: it provides. in fact. that the funds will be dedicated to the improvement of services and will be distributed in proportion to the number of passports issued, so the offices that operate best will be able to manage a greater amount of funds independently; in this way a virtuous cycle is fed where citizens will be able to express their needs and the Consulates will have resources available to invest to meet the needs of the community on consular services. The proposal also calls for publication on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs website of the use of funds, precisely for transparency to citizens.
This is the first time that a proposal for increased funding and efficiency of consular services has been approved organically through ordinary law, and not through a few amendments in the budget law; in fact, if we think about the efforts we make every year to obtain small improvements in the budget law, to have obtained 4 million in off-budget funds is really a great success. I am very proud of this achievement, which was achieved thanks to months of work in Parliament to raise awareness of the issues of Italians abroad. Now, the only thing missing for final approval is passage in the Senate, but I am confident that it will be approved quickly there as well.
In July, discussion of my bill for health care for Italians enrolled in AIRE also began in committee. Today, those who enroll in AIRE in fact lose their health care (except in cases of emergency); the aim is, therefore, to find ways to allow them to maintain their assistance. We are still in the early stages and have a few months of discussion ahead of us in which I hope we will be able to find an agreed solution.
In June, Parliament also passed the Law for Differentiated Autonomy, a law that I believe is unfair and will take away economic resources from southern regions. This is precisely why I intervened harshly in Parliament to point out the danger of this law and the government’s confused line; with the Democratic Party, we are now promoting a referendum to repeal this law. The referendum proposal must reach 500,000 signatures to be placed on the ballot, and Italians abroad can also sign for the referendum through the Ministry of Justice website.
The article Updates from the Italian Parliament in the words of Christian Di Sanzo comes from TheNewyorker.
