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Ministry of Agriculture, ICQRF and Carabinieri for Agribusiness. Budget Law 2023

January 13, 2023

137

The MASAF (Ministry of Agriculture, Food Sovereignty and Forestry) is one of the key players in Budget Law 2023, where significant resources are also dedicated to the ICQRF and the Carabinieri contingent for agribusiness protection. Details and brief reflections to follow.

Table of Contents

1) Ministry of Agriculture, MASAF

Budget Law 2023-in addition to the new funds already introduced in MASAF budgets, and the strengthening of existing ones (1)-dedicates additional resources to the organization of the Ministry of Agriculture.

1.1) Organizational Resources

First, the Ministry of Agriculture is authorized to spend 15 million euros in each of the years 2023 and 2024 for the department’s own activities (Budget Law 2023, Art. 1.456). (2) Namely:

Agricultural research and experimentation carried out by national agencies, institutes and laboratories,
Collection, processing and dissemination of information and data, including the national agricultural information system,
Support of national agricultural producer associations and unions,
Plant and livestock genetic improvement, carried out by national associations,
Protection and enhancement of agricultural product quality,
Fraud prevention and suppression,
Supporting national forestry policies. (3)

1.2) NRP, new allocations to MASAF.

‘The endowment of the Fund for the implementation of the NRP interventions under the responsibility of the Ministry of Agriculture, Food Sovereignty and Forestry (…) is increased by 9 million euros for the year 2023, 12 million euros for the year 2024 and 11.6 million euros for the year 2025, in order to enable the implementation of the planned interventions on schedule‘ (art. 1.457).

1.3) Increases in allowances and salaries

‘Effective the year 2023, by way of derogation from the financial limits and terms provided for in current legislation:

the administration allowance of the non-executive staff of the said Ministry is increased by a total amount of 1 million euros annually before charges to the administration‘ (Art. 1.436),
‘the Decentralized Resources Fund referred to in Articles 76 of the National Collective Labor Agreement of the Central Functions Sector (…) shall be increased by a total amount of 1,830,000 euros per year, by way of derogation from the financial limits and terms provided by the legislation in force’,
‘shall also be increased by 250,000 euros annually for the position and performance compensation fund for contracted general managerial level staff‘ (Art. 1.438).

2) ICQRF, new recruitments

‘The same Ministry Is authorized to hire a contingent of 300
units of personnel to be placed in the Area of officials (…), with permanent employment contract, in addition to the existing hiring powers’ at its Department of the Central Inspectorate for the Protection of Quality and Fraud Repression of Agri-food Products (ICQRF). ‘With increase of 263 corresponding posts in the headcount.‘ (art. 1.452).

2.1) Financial coverage

New hires-to be obtained through open competitions, the running of existing public competition rankings, and procedures for the direct transfer of personnel between different administrations-are financed by:

10.152 million for the year 2023 and 13.536 million annually starting in 2024
1.954 million, for the year 2023, for the management of competition procedures (€600,000) and ‘increased operating expenses resulting from the recruitment of the staff contingent‘,

2.2) Overtime and allowance increases.

The fees owed for the overtime performance of the said ICQRF personnel are financed with 675 thousand euros for the year 2023, 900 thousand euros annually from 2024, in addition to the ‘Expenditure of 136,000 euros annually from the year 2024 for the same operating expenses‘ (art. 1.452).

The increase in allowances given to ICQRF personnel in relation to ‘high technical preparation, onerousness and risks also related to judicial police activity‘ (Law 49/2001, Article 3.4) then receives funding of 2 million euros, for the year
2023 (art. 1.436).

3) Carabinieri for agribusiness protection.

In turn, the contingent of personnel of the Carabinieri agri-food protection unit is significantly strengthened. With ‘the extraordinary hiring of a
maximum quota of a total of 120 units as of September 1 , 2023, in addition to the ordinary hiring powers provided for in current legislation’. Units are more than tripled, from 50 to 170, with the following breakdown:

76 new inspectors (from 34 to 110),
44 new police officers and carabinieri (from 16 to 60).

‘The Ministry of Agriculture, Food Sovereignty and Forestry shall bear the costs associated with economic treatment, motorization, barracks and clothing‘ (Budget Law 2023, Art. 1.666).

4) Brief Considerations

Thus, the diversion of resources dedicated to official controls on the agribusiness chain continues , from the Ministry of Health and regional and local health administrations to the Department of Agriculture. It is worth noting in this regard that:

the health administration still holds the specialized expertise (physicians, veterinarians, prevention technicians, biologists. Still waiting for food technologists) that are required for public health, animal health and welfare risk analysis,
the allocation of ‘out of order’ responsibilities to the two ministries must come to terms with the official control coordination and planning burdens prescribed by reg. EU 2017/625(Official Controls Regulation) to a single entity for each member state (4,5),
the new hires in ICQRF and Carabinieri per la Salute, certainly useful in the face of a very wide variety of skills, however, do not seem adequate to guarantee the effectiveness of official controls on about 3 million operators in Italy, from farm to fork. (6)

Dario Dongo

Notes

(1) Dario Dongo. Ministry of Agriculture and Food Sovereignty. The new funds in the Finance Act 2023. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade). 5.1.22

(2) Law Dec. 29, 2022, no. 197. State budget for the financial year 2023 and multi-year budget for the three-year period 2023-2025. On Normattiva https://www.normattiva.it/uri-res/N2Ls?urn:nir:stato:legge:2022;197

(3) Law No. 499/1999, as amended(Rationalization of interventions in the agricultural, agribusiness, agroindustrial and forestry sectors), Article 4(Financing of activities under the responsibility of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry)

(4) Dario Dongo, Amaranta Traversa, Sarah Lanzilli, Claudio Biglia. Official controls, d .lgs. 27/21. Implementation of EU reg. 2017/625. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade). 14.3.21

(5) Dario Dongo, Giulia Pietrollini. Official controls, European Commission guidelines on reg. EU 2017/625. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade). 2.1.23

(6) With particular regard to the recipients of the rules contained in Reg. EU 1169/11. See in this regard the ebook ‘1169 penis. Reg. EU 1169/11. Food information, controls and penalties‘.