ISSN 2184-8793 ISSNe 2975-9056 professions, it is the responsibility of the State to identify professional profiles and establish the necessary requirements for their practice9. Therefore, it is a concurrent matter between the State and Regions, with the broader category of professions prevailing over the specific category of tourism10. As a result, all regional laws that envisaged the introduction of new professional figures (e.g., nature guide) were annulled11. The paradoxical situation has led to a significant reduction in the legislative powers of the Regions in the field of professions. Their authority was now largely confined to the peripheral tasks of verifying the competencies of professionals, organizing training courses, and maintaining professional lists, with a mere recognitive, communicative or updating12. Simultaneously, this has created a legislative gap due to the challenges of interaction with European Union regulations13. It was, in fact, necessary for the State to intervene to define the various professions, including tourist guides, through a central provision. As is known, there was already an initial attempt at central coordination in 2001 through the reform of Law 217/83 with Law 135/01. However, it was a considerable failure, precisely because it coincided temporally with the constitutional reform14. Even the second attempt at reorganization, which occurred a decade later with Legislative Decree on September 23, 2011, the Tourism Code, did not allow for significant progress in the field of professions. This was not so much due to constitutional issues15, but rather because the various tourism professions were not clearly identified in Article 6. This provision, by adopting the definition of Article 7, fifth paragraph of Law 135/2001, has indeed confined itself to defining tourist professions in general: activities "aimed at providing services for the promotion of tourist activities, as well as hospitality, assistance, accompaniment, and guidance services, aimed at enabling tourists to make the best use of their journey and vacation, also in terms of knowledge of the visited places”. 9 See Corte Cost. dec. 29/10/2009 n.271, regarding the law of Emilia-Romagna, it states that "the allocation of the subject of 'professions' to the competence of the State [...] disregards the sector in which the professional activity operates and corresponds to the need for uniform regulation at the national level that is also consistent with the principles of the European legal system." 10 See: M. Malo, Tourism without Professions (Turismo senza professioni), in Le Regioni, n. 3/2010, 654 ss., and of the same Author, Tourism and professions (Turismo e professioni), in Le Regioni, n. 2-3/2006, 555 ss. 11 The Law of the Puglia Region, dated December 19, 2008, No. 37 (Provisions on tourist professional activities), which introduced new professional figures such as tourist interpreter, congress operator, and sports tourist guide, was annulled with Judgment No. 132 of April 21, 2010. In this judgment, the Court asserts that "tourist professions fall within the subject of 'professions,' attributed to the concurrent legislative competence of the State and Regions". The Legal Counsel then criticizes Articles 7 and 8 of the mentioned regional law, which establish "the creation and maintenance of professional registers and lists," as well as the identification of the necessary conditions for registration in them. Both provisions would be in contrast with the aforementioned Article 117, third paragraph of the Constitution since the identification of requirements for the exercise of professions and the subsequent issuance of relevant authorizations fall under the competence of the State, "which must be valid for the entire national territory and not just for the regional one". Finally, according to the petitioner, all the contested rules would violate the principle of the free provision of services, as well as that of competition protection, both falling within the exclusive legislative competence of the State, according to Article 117, second paragraph, letter e), of the Constitution. 12 Thus, admitted by the Constitutional Court, sentence number 355 of 2005. In the same ruling, the Court reiterates that the regional legislator cannot establish a limitation on the territorial areas for which authorization exists, nor can it prescribe the territorial areas within which the profession can be practiced. Such limitations would constitute a violation of the principle of the free provision of services, as outlined in Article 40 of the EC Treaty. For a commentary on the judgment, refer to E.Bindi – M. Mancini, The Court, in search of a precise delineation of the boundaries of the subject of professions (La Corte alla ricerca di una precisa delineazione di confini della materia professioni), in federalismi.it, 24/2005. 13 For a reconstruction refer to S. Cavaliere, The uncertain boundaries of the legal regulation of the tourist guide profession between European Union law and national law, (Gli incerti confini della disciplina giuridica della professione di guida turistica tra diritto dell'unione europea e ordinamento nazionale), in Dir. pubb. eu., 1/2017. 14 The state law of March 29, 2001, number 135, reforming the framework law 217/83, was enacted shortly before the reform of Title V of the Constitution, when the State still had concurrent competence. The implementing decree for the same law, the DPCM of December 13, 2002 (later partially annulled by the DPR of April 27, 2004), was instead issued in 2002, when the State had already lost some of its competencies. The implementation process has thus become so complicated that it has resulted in a deadlock. On the topic refer to M. Malo, The annulment of the presidential decree (rectius dpcm) 13 September 2002 for the part relating to tourist guides (L'annullamento del dpr (rectius dpcm) 13 settembre 2002 per la parte relativa alle guide turistiche), in Dir. Tur., 3/2004, p. 273 and seq. 15 The censorship of sentence 80/2012 of the Constitutional Court affected most of the provisions of the Decree, but not article 6 of the Tourism Code, as the matter of professions falls under state competence, although concurrent.
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