ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the European policy-making and the machinery of Italian government. Each European Union (EU) member state relates to the European Union in ways that reflect its own political and administrative culture. The domestic political management of the policy agenda and the weaknesses of the administrative system both appear to militate against timely and effective definition of Italian interests. The one department that sought to maintain oversight over the whole range of policy was the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in time taking over the generalized coordinating role played by the interministerial committee. The new framework legislation for the Department, the so-called La Pergola Law, set up a procedure for dealing with the implementation of EC law that became known as the legge comunitaria. In this policy sector, as in many others, the reliance of the Italian government machinery on law and procedure rather than on real resources and political cohesion has remained a powerful constraint on effective institutional reform.
