Regulation of Stakeholders (IT0061)

• Regulation of Stakeholders (August 1, 2020)

Background and objectives
Currently, the management of relations between stakeholders and public decision-makers does not rely on the same level of transparency as inside administrations. Therefore, public decision-making is not transparent and traceable enough. In the past, initiatives developed to overcome this obstacle, albeit praiseworthy, led to an inhomogeneous situation among administrations, making the system not efficient and causing complications for both stakeholders and, as far as data accessibility is concerned, also for citizens. Hence, the need to develop a shared solution with the establishment of a transparent Register of Stakeholders, in cooperation with different Ministries and with a standardized implementation procedure. By doing this, the system would be shared by cooperating administrations and would help improve efficiency, promote reuse inside PA, make the relationship between public decision-makers and lobbyists transparent and simplify the relationship with stakeholders.

Commitments

This action aims at:
- establishing a working group of administrations involved (PCM-DFP, MISE, MATTM, MIPAAFT) and civil society (representatives of the Open Government Forum) to develop a possible shared “form” to advertise a Register of Stakeholders and a standard procedure to make sure Ministries join in. This would help meet the need for transparency expressed by civil society and would be in line with the solutions already adopted in their specific commitments by the administrations involved;
- presenting the solution to decision-makers inside administrations for them to consider how it should be further developed.

Lead Administrations
Department for Public Administration (PCM – DFP) – Stefano Pizzicannella Ministry of Economic Development (MISE) – Gilda Gallerati

Other administrations involved
• Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Tourism (MIPAAFT), Ministry of the Environment (MATTM)
• City of Rome

Monitoring contact person from the Open Government Forum
Riparte il Futuro – Federico Anghelé

5. Regulation of stakeholders

5. Regulation of stakeholders

Completion: Limited

Milestones 5.1–5.4 (MISE, PCM-DFP, MATTM, MIPAAFT): Government and civil society representatives confirmed completion of Milestone 5.1 (establishing a working group to identify a shared solution for the register of stakeholders). However, both political turnover and the pandemic’s shifting of meetings online stalled the process and limited engagement. [104] Some steps were taken on Milestone 5.2 to update the platform used by MISE for its transparency register so that it could consolidate registers from different public administrations. [105] A MISE representative stressed that stronger political interest and coordination efforts at decision-making levels—which remained limited during implementation of the fourth action plan—would be instrumental for implementing this commitment. [106] Milestones 5.3 and 5.4 are not completed.

Both government and CSO representatives have stressed the importance of carrying this commitment forward into the fifth action plan, [107] with a view to ensuring transparency among stakeholders implementing the Resilience and Recovery Plan. [108]

A civil society representative expressed concern that steps backward were occurring in the area of transparency in decision-making. He explained that the Ministry for Ecological Transition (MiTE), [109] one of the public administrations responsible for implementing these milestones, used to have a public agenda of meeting with stakeholders. In April 2021, an investigation from the Italian Data Protection Authority [110] highlighted a series of concerns related to the online publication of personal data and requested that the Register be amended within 30 days. Instead, the section including the meeting agendas was moved to a less visible spot on the MiTE website and has not been updated since May 2021. [111]

Milestones 5.5–5.7 (City of Rome): The City of Rome has not created a register associated with adopting Open Agendas (5.6), nor tested or implemented regular communication mechanisms with stakeholders to lay the foundation for national regulations (5.7). This is because approval of the regulation (5.5) is still pending. [112] The IRM reached out to the City of Rome for additional information on this process but did not receive a response.