2.2 The Regional Level: the Regional Sustainable Development Strategy (RDS) The Italian Regions and Autonomous Provinces play a key role in the development and implementation of the SNSvS. In addition to ensuring the cascading of the strategy to the different levels of government, they ensure the alignment of their programming and legislative instruments with the Sustainable Development Objectives identified at national level, promote the involvement of key stakeholders and citizens, promote the exchange of information and monitor the achievement of the Goals and targets. The effectiveness of SNSvS strongly depends on the quality of the development strategies implemented at regional level, also because most of the Agenda 2030 objectives relate to matters of exclusive regional competence. In order to bring Agenda 2030 down from the central to the regional and, subsequently, provincial and local dimensions, Art.34 of Legislative Decree 152/2006 states that within twelve months of the decision to update the national strategy, the regions must adopt a Regional Sustainable Development Strategy (SRSvS) through the involvement of local players and through participatory processes, “without additional burdens on regional budgets”. The strategy must indicate the contribution of the region to the national objectives, identify the instruments to be activated and define the priorities and actions to be taken. The support to Regions and Autonomous Provinces for the implementation of the SNSvS and the elaboration of the Regional Strategies for Sustainable Development has been entirely supervised and promoted by the MATTM and began
in April 2018 with the establishment of a discussion group between the Ministry of Environment, Regions and Autonomous Provinces in order to activate exchanges and ensure methodological coordination in the definition of individual regional strategies and their contribution to the implementation of the national strategy. Subsequently, on August 3, 2018, an announcement was published to gather expressions of interest to finance activities related to the development of regional strategies and finally, technical support to regional and provincial processes were promoted through the project funded CReIAMO PA from the Structural Funds (PON Governance and Technical Assistance)17.
2.2.1 Regional State of Play: how are the Italian regions and autonomous provinces positioned in relation to Agenda 2030? The recent analysis of the SDGs indicators elaborated by ISTAT highlights a deep territorial disparity between the regions of Northern and Southern Italy, which makes Italy’s path towards sustainable development18 arduous. Trento, Bolzano, Valle d’Aosta, Lombardy, Friuli VeneziaGiulia, Emilia Romagna, Tuscany and Piedmont are oriented towards a development perspective 17
More details at the following link: http://www.infoparlamento.it/tematiche/approfondimenti/strategia-nazionale-sullo-sviluppo-sostenibile-gennaio-2019 18 It should be noted that in Italy there are 20 Regions, 15 with ordinary statute and 5 with special statute: Sicilia, Sardegna, Valle d’Aosta, Friuli-Venezia Giulia and Trentino-Alto Adige (made up of the Autonomous Provinces of Trento and Bolzano), which differ for a greater degree of autonomy. The Autonomous Provinces of Trento and Bolzano have the same powers as the special statute regions.
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