Diritto Pubblico Comparato ed Europeo

Sommario

1. L’attualità di una revisione dell’art. 11 della Costituzione. – 2. La situazione oggi: profili procedurali e sostanziali dell’art. 11 Cost. e il paradosso della sua prassi applicativa. – 3. Quali novità reca la proposta di revisione costituzionale dell’art. 11 Cost.? – 4. La responsabilità del popolo italiano nello scenario europeo: il rifiuto della ratifica e i suoi effetti paralizzanti per tutta l’Unione. – 5. Il campo di applicazione della nuova procedura e il concetto di «ulteriori limitazioni di sovranità». – 6. L’incompatibilità tra un referendum approvativo obbligatorio e il quorum di partecipazione. – 7. Una omissione: la partecipazione delle Regioni.

Abstract

The Author analyses the proposed amendment to art. 11 of the Italian Constitution recently presented in the Chamber of Deputies. She considers this Italian European Clause necessary for a number of reasons and in particular in order to fill the gap in terms of democracy with respect to the constituent process which began with the Convention of Laeken. At present the European treaties are ratified in Italy with the approval of an ordinary law by the Italian Parliament, but this procedure would appear to be unsuitable for the future European Constitutional treaties. According to the Author a procedure that guarantees greater participation of the people both in the form of a referendum and by means of representative bodies is necessary. However the proposal taken into consideration is strongly criticised because the provision of a compulsory referendum in the ratification process that would only be valid if the majority of the electors take part in it as it simply would not work. When the legislator drafts a new procedure for the ratification of the European treaties, it has to keep in mind that a negative response by the Italian people would have important consequences, because it would prevent the European treaty from entering into force for all the peoples of Europe.