The Government ensures periodical adaptation of national legislation to EU legislation with the European Law and the European Delegation Law, in accordance with Law No. 234/2012 (Article 30).
The European Delegation Law specifically contains the legislative delegations for implementation of EU legislative acts, amendment or repeal of existing provisions (to the extent necessary to ensure system compliance with reasoned opinions) or the final sentences of the EU Court of Justice.
The European Delegation Law also gives the Government the powers to issue legislative decrees implementing EU directives or other acts of the European Union.
These decrees are adopted upon proposal of the Minister for European Affairs and the Minister with prevailing competence in accordance with the delegation procedures and deadlines specified by Articles 31-32 of Law No. 234/2012, and are issued involving relevant Ministries and being coordinated by the legislative office of the Minister for European Affairs.
Within the same Delegation Law, the Government is given the biennial delegation of power to issue both criminal and administrative sanctions, under the responsibility of the State, in the event of breach of European precepts not transposed into national laws, as they are either contained in directives implemented with non-primary sources (hence unsuitable to establish criminal sanctions) or within directly applicable EU regulations.
As well known, there is no European standard for sanctions, due to the evident diversity of national systems.
Regulations and directives therefore leave it up to Member States to regulate the consequences of non-compliance.
Lastly, pursuant to Article 31, Section 5, of Law No. 234 of 2012, in conjunction with the articles of the European delegation laws approved annually, the Government may adopt additional and corrective provisions to the aforementioned legislative decrees implementing European directives or other EU acts, within 24 months of the entry into force of each of the decrees.
The legislative decree is submitted to the Council of Ministers for preliminary approval and, after obtaining the other opinions provided for by law, is transmitted to the Chamber of Deputies and to the Senate of the Republic and submitted to the opinion of competent parliamentary bodies.
Once the opinion of the parliamentary bodies has been obtained, the measure is again submitted to the Council of Ministers for final approval.
After the decree has been issued by the President of the Republic and validated by the Keeper of the Seals, it is published in the Official Journal of the Italian Republic (Gazzetta Ufficiale Repubblica Italiana).
This section [IT] sets out the procedure followed for adoption of EU acts: from their publication in the Official Journal of the EU to the publication of the transposition decree in the Italian Official Journal (Gazzetta Ufficiale della Repubblica Italiana).