Italy is looking at introducing legislation that will reduce the power of local authorities over strategic areas, such as energy, infrastructure and tourism, said Public Administration Minister Filippo Patroni Griffi Thursday, as the central government looks to speed up the decision-making process to attract investment.

We need to re-look at local government autonomy...we need to intervene in some areas such as energy and tourism and place them back under central government, said Mr. Patroni Griffi in an interview broadcast SkyTG24.

In 2001, Italy changed its constitution to hand over powers in certain areas, such as energy, to local governments that had previously been dealt with by Rome .

Since then, critics have said that the procedure to approve energy projects has become extremely slow, bureaucratic and expensive. This is jeopardizing investments and keeping energy prices high compared with other European countries.

Διαβάστε ακόμα