Funzione di organizzazione dei servizi pubblici locali e sussidiarietà tra norme generali e regolazioni settoriali

Under general principles of Italian law the organisational functions of local public services belong to Municipalities, as their “own” and “fundamental” functions according to Article 117, second paragraph, letter p) and Article 118, first paragraph of the Constitution. On the contrary, sector-specific regulations tend to derogate to those principles, dealing the above functions either as functions specifically “assigned” to Municipalities, according to Article 118, second paragraph of the Constitution, or as functions that Municipalities can no longer carry out, in accordance with principle of “horizontal subsidiarity” as stated in Article 118, fourth paragraph of the Constitution (in case of regulations that impose liberalisation or, at least, interdiction of in-house awards), or with principle of “vertical subsidiarity”, as defined by Article 118, first paragraph of the Constitution (in case of regulations that, in order to “ensure uniform implementation” of the functions in question, assign them to State, Regions, optimal size mandatory Associations of Municipalities or, more recently, Provinces, owing to flaws of those Associations).