The Senate on Thursday gave the final
green light to the government's reform of Italy's criminal
justice system, approving it with 177 votes in favour and 24
against.
The package, aimed at speeding up the system, had already been
approved by the Lower House and is now the law of the land.
The EU made the granting of COVID-19 Recovery Plan funds
conditional on Italy speeding up its notoriously slow criminal
justice system and revamping the civil system too.
The reform, drafted by Justice Minister Marta Cartabia, sets
limits on the time it can take to rule on first appeals and on
cases at the supreme court.
It caused considerable tension within Premier Mario Draghi's
coalition before a compromise was reached at the end of July.
It effectively waters down a reform passed by Alfonso Bonafede,
a 5-Star Movement (M5S) lawmaker who was the justice minister in
ex-premier Giuseppe Conte's two coalition governments from June
2018 until the start of this year.
Bonafede's reform puts the statue of limitations on hold after
the first-instance ruling in order to stop criminals getting off
because their cases get timed out due to the slowness of the
legal system.
The judiciary's self-governing body, the CSM, said a huge number
of cases would end up being shelved if the Cartabia reform had
been approved in its original form.
The M5S demanded changes to the reform to stop this happening,
which led to a compromise in which crimes regarding the mafia,
terrorism, sexual violence and criminal association are handled
under a different regime.
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