Servizi pubblici locali: leale collaborazione e complessità del fenomeno sociale

Following the Constitutional Court decision n. 199 of 2012, the discipline of public local services of general economic interest, after several years of regulatory changes and uncertainties, became quite steady. However, the delegation of authority provided by law n. 124 of 2015 (the so- called Madia reform) attempted to further reorganize this field.Yet, this target was not accomplished: the Constitutional Court declared these provisions void.The Court did not declared the law unconstitutional as a consequence of the breach of the rules on shared legislative powers between the State and the Regions, but rather on the basis of the violation of the principle of loyal cooperation. The article analyzes the implications of the application of the principle of loyal cooperation in the field of public local services. On one hand, the principle of loyal cooperation is required to compose the interests involved in the public administration reorganization. It is an instrument to cope with legal complexity. On the other, public local services are a very “complex social phenomenon”, given the plurality of the institutional levels involved.Thus, the application of the principle of loyal cooperation is particularly necessary in this field. Compared to it, the principle of competition has just a subsidiary role.The Constitutional Court has underlined the flexibility of the principle, which takes different shapes and can be implemented at various degrees of intensity.The principle is so malleable as to be applied in different situations, characterized by multiple and various relationships among public administrations.