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Public participations and liberalization: the government seeks a balance between industrial strategy and openness to the market

The majority leadership finds a synthesis between liberal, statist and more pragmatic demands. CDP at the center of the new architecture of the public economic sector

Meeting of the Imperial State Council
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October 5654

ROMULA - After months of discussion within the coalition, the second Giunio government is ready to present to the Congress a detailed bill on liberalization and on the governance of publicly-owned companies. The objective is clear: to define in a stable and transparent way the role of the State in the economy, distinguishing precisely the areas in which public intervention is indispensable from those in which it can, and perhaps must, retreat to make room for the market.

According to what emerged from the documents circulated in the latest coalition meetings, the text of the proposal aims to introduce a new organic law on public participations, based on three main axes.

Defense of the national interest: the State remains in strategic sectors
The first principle establishes that the State will maintain a direct and qualified presence in all sectors considered strategic for the national interest: energy, systemically important transport, defense, telecommunications and sensitive technologies. It is not necessarily a matter of holding the majority of the capital, but of maintaining an effective capacity to influence corporate policies, including through tools such as golden shares, presence on boards of directors, and stability pacts between shareholders.

A line that satisfies the National Liberal Party, which has forcefully defended the need to guarantee the country industrial and technological autonomy, without sacrificing efficiency and market freedom.

Non-strategic sectors: space for private investments, with clear rules
A different story for public companies active in non-strategic sectors, such as some sectors of services, logistics and ordinary industrial activities. In these areas, the bill provides for the launch of a series of broad liberalizations sector by sector and opening to the market of private actors and therefore the possibility of opening minority shares to private capital in public companies, also through partial placements on the market, without however compromising the public mission of the companies.

The Hosian Democratic Union has set as a condition that such openings be accompanied by employment guarantees and tools for the protection of work. A condition accepted by the Liberal Democrats and Liberal Republicans, who in turn have asked to review the system of incentives and tax exemptions for these companies, so that they do not alter competition in the market.

CDP at the center of public shareholdings management
Finally, a key element of the project is the strengthening of the Deposits and Consignements Fund (CDP), which will be recognized by law as the central body for the management, coordination and development of public shareholdings. The CDP will act as the strategic safe of the State, with strengthened powers of industrial direction and operational tools to invest also in private companies, provided that they are in line with national development objectives.

According to the text being drafted, the CDP will be able to:

• intervene with qualified minority shares in private companies with high potential;
  

• coordinate the industrial policies of the participating companies;
  

• act as a single interlocutor for investors and financial entities interested in public-private partnership projects.
  

On the other side of the political spectrum, the Party of New Communists denounces a hypocritical plan that paves the way for the sell-off of public assets to large private concentrations, especially in non-strategic sectors. The party has also criticized the possibility granted to CDP to intervene in private companies, defining it as a new channel for the transfer of public money to industrial groups friendly to the government.

The position of the Socialist Democrats and the Movement of Greens is also critical, which have highlighted the absence of a real integrated industrial vision and a plan for the full valorization of workers in public companies. According to the PSD leadership, the reform is too unbalanced on financial leverage and risks neglecting the social dimension of public enterprises, which should be first and foremost tools for territorial cohesion and equity.

Despite the controversy, the numbers in the Council of State will ensure a relatively smooth parliamentary path, also thanks to the solidity of the majority.