For many months now, Italy has been discussing, in a very general and evasive manner, the referendum against drilling , promoted by nine regional councils and supported by numerous environmental movements and associations, including the No Triv coordination group and Greenpeace . The referendum will be held on April 17 , but the press and mainstream media have covered it little and superficially. The referendum is one of the few expressions of direct democracy we have left. Here are some clarifications on the topic.
When will the referendum be held?
The referendum will be held on April 17. Many have unsuccessfully called for the vote to be moved to June, when local elections will be held in several Italian cities, to save on polling station construction. Holding the local elections and the referendum at the same time would enhance the visibility of the referendum question and increase the likelihood of reaching the quorum required for the referendum to be valid. To reach this quorum, half of eligible voters must vote. The Government and the President of the Republic have decided to call the abrogative referendum on April 17. The law (Decree No. 98 of 2011) does not provide for elections to be held concurrently with a referendum.
What is asked in the referendum question?
The referendum question asks: "Do you want active fields in Italian territorial waters to be halted when concessions expire, even if there is still gas or oil?" The question concerns only the duration of drilling already underway within 12 miles of the coast and does not concern onshore oil activities or those at sea beyond 12 miles (22,2 kilometers) from the coast.
What could be the effects of a “yes”?
If the "yes" vote wins, Article 6, paragraph 17 of the Environmental Code will be repealed, which requires drilling to continue as long as the field permits. A "yes" vote will block all concessions for oil extraction within 12 miles of the Italian coast, when the contracts expire. Among the others affected by the measure are: the Guendalina field (Eni) in the Adriatic, the Gospo field (Edison) in the Adriatic, and the Vega field (Edison) off Ragusa, Sicily. All 106 oil platforms in the Italian seas extracting oil or natural gas will not be affected by the referendum.
Is a quorum necessary?
A quorum is necessary because only then will the referendum result be valid, as required by Article 75 of the Italian Constitution. For it to be valid, at least 50% of eligible voters must vote.
Why is there only one referendum question?
In September 2015, Possibile , the movement founded by Giuseppe Civati , promoted eight referendums but failed to collect the 500 signatures needed to call for a popular referendum. A few weeks later, ten regional councils (Abruzzo, Basilicata, Marche, Puglia, Sardinia, Veneto, Calabria, Liguria, Campania, and Molise) promoted six referendums on hydrocarbon exploration and extraction in Italy. Abruzzo subsequently withdrew from the list of sponsors. In December 2015, the government proposed amendments to the Stability Law on the same issues addressed by the referendums; for this reason, the Court of Cassation re-examined the referendums and on January 8 declared only one admissible, as the other seven would be addressed by the Stability Law. Six regional councils (Basilicata, Sardinia, Veneto, Liguria, Puglia, and Campania) are challenging the government for legislating on a matter that falls within the jurisdiction of the regions under Article 117 of the Constitution, as amended by the 2001 constitutional reform. If the Constitutional Court upholds the regions' appeals, the two referendum questions that were previously denied would be reinstated and subsequently put to the voters. The two questions concern equally important and sensitive issues: the "area plan" (i.e., the drilling planning tool that requires the involvement of the regions, abolished by the government in the Stability Law) and the duration of permits for the exploration and exploitation of liquid and gaseous hydrocarbons onshore.
One of the thousand reasons to vote "yes"
Drilling and destroying Italy's seabed will not solve our energy dependence on foreign countries. As the government itself admits, proven oil reserves in Italy's seas are equivalent to 7-8 weeks of national consumption, and we could extract enough gas to meet our needs for six months. Objectively, it's not worth it, especially since a leak in a "small" sea like ours would cause environmental, and collateral economic, damage to the entire peninsula.
Rino Carfora
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