The road to simplification

By Marco Ferrara, FEDERTEC General Manager

On the website of the Ministry of Public Administration there is a special section dedicated to ‘Simplification’, which has always been one of the reforms most advocated by citizens and businesses, yet never fully implemented. The incipit of the text on the ministerial website reads: “Simplification is achieved through regulatory, administrative, organisational and technological interventions aimed at reducing the burden of bureaucracy on citizens and businesses. Simplification today is based on a logic of results.” Last November, following Decree-Law No 76 of 16 July 2020 (subsequently converted into law), the Simplification Agenda 2020-2023 was also officially approved. This is an extremely detailed 68-page document that should lead, on paper, to a real simplification of current bureaucratic procedures, through the implementation of specific measures for the different economic sectors. We are confident that this new programme will be considered as a priority for the economic recovery, so that our country can emerge as quickly as possible from the serious crisis caused by the pandemic. While waiting for the government’s plan to be implemented, in its own small way FEDERTEC has also implemented its own simplification, with the revision of the association’s statute, approved by the Extraordinary Assembly of members last June. The need for an amendment to the statute arose from the desire to simplify both governance structure and election procedures and, at the same time, to boost the representativeness of the sector associations, ASSIOT and ASSOFLUID. The revision of the Statute, from the first meeting of the working group to its approval during the Assembly, took less than 6 months, a relatively short time, and was the result of our commitment in achieving this objective. We hope that the Simplification Agenda 2020-2023 will be supported by the same determination.