Mixed Companies Managing Local Public Services in Italy: Regulatory Innovation and the European Model

L'articolo tratta dell'evoluzione intricata delle società miste di gestione dei servizi pubblici locali in Italia con profili rilevanti di comparazione con le esperienze di Francia, Regno Unito, Germania e Spagna. I frequenti interventi dell'UE con atti di soft law a partire dal 2004 circa il partenariato pubblico privato da applicare alle società miste, hanno comportato un adeguamento della legislazione interna fino all'attuale disciplina del 2016 che è basata proprio sul modello europeo; in tale schema è incluso il privato che dev'essere finanziatore ma anche socio operativo nella gestione dei servizi pubblici in collaborazione col socio pubblico (ente locale). Ciò conferma l'uniformità del modello a livello europeo. The mixed company for the management of public utilities is a well-known legal scheme that can be found in various national systems as an example of public-private partnership and, therefore, of partnership between local authorities and economic operators. The technical solutions, above all for the choice of the private partner, initially depended on the differentiated traditions of the single systems according to a path, still current and not always linear, between public law and private law with common objectives. The references to some interesting national experiences and the analysis of the Italian scheme of a mixed company allow to acquire the general framework of the basic issues also in relation to the reforms of the local authorities in the context of the financial and economic crisis. In the Italian legal system, the discipline is particularly intricate in its evolution up to the D. Lgs. 19 August 2016, n. 175, on companies with public participation, and not easily attributable to a defined policy of local public services, as emerges from the numerous attempts at regulatory adaptation to EU law and guidelines and internal reforms aimed at reducing public spending for local authorities. In particular, the mixed economy societies represent the institutionalised public-private partnership, distinct from the contractual PPP, solutions referred to in various official European documents, without elaborating a general regulatory definition, but nevertheless delineating a common European model being implemented also through the new discipline of public contracts