Speech by the Attorney General of the State Michele Giuseppe Dipace ON THE OCCASION OF THE INAUGURATION CEREMONY OF THE JUDICIAL YEAR 2014 (Rome, 24 January 2014) Mr President of the Republic, Mr President of the Court of Cassation, Authorities, Ladies and Gentlemen The inauguration of the judicial year is an opportunity to give an of the activities carried out in 2013 by the Institute that I have the honor of directing. I will proceed in flash, using statistical data, always particularly significant when it comes to the workload of the State Attorney. The new business, handled in 2013, amounted to more than 155,000 nationally, in addition to the several hundred thousand deals still pending in previous years. This is an impressive amount of work that weighs on a total staff of 370 togate only partially covered with an average of 468 new business per capita per year. One third of the work is also borne by the Attorney General who counted in 2013 more than 50,000 deals, with an increase, compared to 2012, of almost 3,000 deals.1.-The litigation dealt with regards all the jurisdictions.1.1-On the supranational level, I recall, among the 310 deals dealt with before the community judges, only two very recent The first ruled that Articles 43 and 49 of the EC Treaty must be interpreted as meaning that these rules do not preclude national (Italian) legislation, which imposes on companies interested in exercising sports betting activities the obligation to obtain a police authorization, in addition to a concession issued by the state to carry out similar activities. With the second, the Court affirmed that art. 3 of the Directive, relating to authorizations for electronic communications networks and services, must be interpreted in the sense that it does not prevent national (Italian) legislation such as that relating to the tax on activities carried out in the context of a government concession. once again, I express my hope for an ever greater participation of the State Attorney's Office in the patronage and defense of appeals in which the State is involved or which could have significant effects in our legal system; involvement which is, moreover, in line with the principle according to which the State Attorney's Office is entitled to advocate the State before all national and supranational judicial bodies. 1.1.1- Before the Constitutional Court, 480 judgments were dealt with in the 'year 2013, among which there are more and more appeals of regional laws; I also recall, among others, the incidental question of constitutionality concerning the so-called “save ILVA” decree-law, positively resolved by the Court; those relating to the reform of the so-called "judicial geography", including the request for an abrogative referendum made by nine Regions (a request declared inadmissible by the Constitutional Court in recent days), as well as the very recent decisions in which the Constitutional Court accepted the appeals for conflict of attribution, proposed by the Advocacy in the interest of the President of the Council of Ministers in relation to the affixing of the state secret with reference to the well-known affair of the former Imam of Milan, Abu Omar. 1.1.2- Before the ordinary judges, the dispute relating to the unreasonable duration of the trial (so-called Pinto law), amounted to a total of 17238. In this regard, it should be noted that in 2013 there was a significant decrease in the related appeals (17238 compared to 24231 in 2012); the result of the new provisions introduced on the subject, which dictate a clearer and more stringent regulation of these proceedings. Also worthy of mention is the dispute regarding the recognition of Italian citizenship, international protection and political asylum of foreign citizens which constitutes one of the most relevant and complex social phenomena of the new millennium, issues and principles now under discussion in the political-parliamentary seat for the amendments to the relative legislation. , the terrorist attack on the Falcone-Morvillo Institute in Brindisi; the trial against the so-called NO TAV of the Val di Susa, as well as the trial on the so-called "State-Mafia negotiation", the numerous criminal trials against the managers of the Ministry of Defense regarding the use of asbestos and finally the constitutions of civil action for the Revenue Agency in the matter of tax evasion. Finally, allow me to underline, also this year, the importance of the demanding defensive assistance that the State Attorney continues to provide to the Defense Administration with reference to notes the story of the two Maròs subjected to criminal proceedings in India; story, which is now at a turning point, after the well-known inertia of the Indian justice, following the Italian request for the formulation of the charge. 1.1.3- Equally substantial is the dispute before the administrative courts, which concerned the most varied in the context of appeal against administrative measures, as well as actions for compensation for damage from an illegitimate administrative act. There is always a large number of disputes relating to the suitability exams for the legal profession and the competitions for filling the positions of notary and magistrate. Particularly delicate, and also in this case numerous, are the appeals lodged by ordinary magistrates against the provisions of the CSM regarding managerial and semi-executive positions; The dispute concerning the provisions of the independent Authorities is also very demanding, due to the complexity of the underlying legal issues and the economic importance that characterizes it. among other things on highly topical issues; I recall the one relating to the experimentation of the so-called "Stamina method" in order to which the Advocacy, in addition to representing the Ministry of Health in the judgment held before the Lazio Regional Administrative Court, ensured the aforementioned Dicastery constant assistance on the procedures and in the preparation In the field of public contracts, in 2013, the issues related to the impact of the provisions of Legislative Decree no. 235 before the Supreme Court, the dispute was, also in 2013, particularly numerous: in fact, 5021 appeals to the Supreme Court were proposed by the Attorney General of the State compared to 4703 in 2012; of these, 3875 appeals concern tax disputes (with a percentage equal to 77.18% of the total). Also in 2013, the close collaboration between the Court of Cassation and the State Advocacy continued, aimed at fixing in a short time of hearings for discussion of "pilot" cases, on issues that have given rise to numerous disputes in the degrees of merit as well as the setting of thematic hearings in order to quickly decide on entire "strands" of cases. , which, as is known, occupies a large part of the activity of both the Civil Cassation and the State Attorney's Office. a number substantially equivalent to those proposed by taxpayers. The outcome of the aforementioned judgments is still overall in favor of the tax authorities. The latest data available indicate a win rate of over 70%; out of an annual value of approximately one billion euros in 2013, the amount of favorable cases amounts to approximately 760 million euros. new art. 360 n. 5 of the Italian Civil Code. The implications that the aforementioned procedural news, if interpreted in a positive sense, could have in tax matters are evident, the tax assessment of which is often based on presumptions, for which it is necessary to check the logic of the same. less important, which will be examined by the United Sections in the coming weeks, is that relating to the effects of a ruling by the Court of Justice which gives rise to the possibility of requesting reimbursements, with respect to the situations now defined. prescription would produce negative effects in terms of increased litigation and uncertainty in legal situations. all the appeals presented between 2007 and 2011 (and some of the 20 The progress of the dispute was extremely profitable for public interests, with a percentage of lawsuits in favor of the Administration close to 90% and the recovery, for the benefit of the European Union and the Italian State, of sums of '' overall amount exceeding one hundred and fifty million euros. With regard to the electronic process, the Avvocatura dello Stato, in 2013, created a substantial national document platform which involved 58% of paper documents converted into digital and uploaded to the file electronic. A memorandum of understanding was recently signed for the establishment of the "Telematic Intermagistrature", an important joint table of all the judiciary (civil, administrative, tax and accounting) and the State Attorney for the analysis and resolution of common problems in computer science.3.-The results of the activity of the State Attorney's Office have been very profitable with positive outcomes of the dispute around 2/3 of the same. This leads us to conclude for a good cost-benefit ratio of the activity carried out by the Avvocatura, when we consider that each case - on the whole - costs the State on average about 800 euros. 4. the country continues to cross requires from all the institutions and all of us the utmost commitment in the exercise of the tasks entrusted to us. I am sure I can assure you, Mr. President of the Republic, that the State Attorney's Office and its members will make every possible effort to live up to the relevant functions assigned, confirming the prestige that the Institute has always had.