SOMMARIO:
1. Premessa.
2. La “depubblicizzazione” del servizio idrico integrato dall’art. 35 della finanziaria per il 2002 al Codice dell’ambiente.
3. La disciplina introdotta dall’art. 23-bis, d.l. 112/2008 modificato dal c.d. decreto Ronchi.
4. Il parere obbligatorio dell’Antitrust e i principi del diritto comunitario.
5. Il “presunto” divieto di gestione diretta dei servizi pubblici locali a rilevanza economica nella sentenza della Corte cost. n. 325/2010.
6. Incostituzionalità e contrarietà all’ordinamento comunitario dell’obbligo di esternalizzazione del servizio idrico integrato.
7. La questione della rilevanza economica.
8. Conclusioni.
Over the past twenty years, a steady process of liberalization and privatization of local public services has taken place in Italy.
In the field of municipal water systems, this process determined the transformation of municipally-owned companies into special public companies and into public limited companies. Furthermore, the legislator has been forcing local authorities to outsource the local services management using market-mimicking procedures.
According to Article 15 of the so-called “Ronchi Decree”, those procedures are the only ones to be used for local services outsourcing: the former managing practices are restrained; local authorities have to sell a huge amount of shares of local services assets; it made the use of public owned companies becomes an exceptional management system.
The Constitutional Court has recently established that the Italian legal system clearly prohibits the direct awarding of water services and that it is necessary to assess the legitimacy of the outsourcing taking into account the Italian Constitution and the UE legal framework.