LAW 190 OF 13 DECEMBER 2023 ON TOURIST GUIDES provide services, the principle of free competition, and legislative competence18. As a result, they have been repeatedly subjected to scrutiny by the Constitutional Court19. Therefore, in the more recent past, the Regions have begun to act much more cautiously. The context of uncertainty has weighed particularly on professionals, who have experienced a prolonged period of interruption in the procedures for obtaining authorization, awaiting intervention from the State. 3. THE CHALLENGING COORDINATION WITH EUROPEAN LEGISLATION If from an internal perspective the regulation of tourist guides has already faced complexity, the framework has been further complicated by its coordination with European legislation, especially concerning the territorial connection of guides20. In Italy, given the uniqueness of our country, extremely rich in cultural and landscape assets, the principle of territorial linkage for the authorization of tourist guides has always been in force21. Therefore, the obtained authorization had a regional (or provincial) scope. The detailed regulations outlined by the Regional laws in force under Law 217/83, in fact, involved the completion of a biennial authorization exam. After passing this exam, the guide could operate only within the territory where they had obtained the authorization22. The Italian system in force at that time repeatedly elicited reactions from the Court of Justice of the European Community and eventually led to the initiation of an infringement procedure (No. 87/0071 of July 5, 1995) by the European Commission23. 18 C. Bertolino, New spaces for intervention for the Regions regarding «professions» and «professional training (Nuovi spazi di intervento per le Regioni in materia di «professioni» e «formazione professionale»?), comment on Corte cost. n. 108/2012, in Le Regioni, 2012, 1044 ss 19 See Cost. Court. 178/2014 and 117/2015. 20 Often due to conflicting interests between Northern and Southern countries. See L. Righi, Tourism professions (Le professioni turistiche), in Diritto del turismo (edited by) V. Franceschelli – F. Morandi, Torino, 2021, p. 246. 21 And it is still invoked by some trade associations, even after the new law came into force. See, www.guideroma.federagit.org. 22 The law 217 of 1983 initially also provided for obtaining a public safety license under the Public Safety Consolidation Act of 1931. The acquisition of this license was repealed by Legislative Decree 112/1998. 23 See: Court of Justice CEE, the judgment of 26/2/1991, Case C-180/89, Case C-154/89, Case C-189/89, and the judgment of 22/3/1994, Case C-375/92, in particular, highlighted that the regulation of tourist guides—not only in Italy—imposed an unjustified limitation on the movement of people and professions. The judgments of the former Court of Justice
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