Order delivered at the hearing of April 10, 2024, attached to Judgment No. 111 of 2024

ORDER

Having examined the documents relating to the proceedings concerning the constitutional legitimacy of Article 37 of Decree-Law No. 21 of March 21, 2022 (Urgent Measures to Counter the Economic and Humanitarian Effects of the Ukrainian Crisis), converted, with amendments, into Law No. 51 of May 20, 2022, as amended by Article 55 of Decree-Law No. 50 of May 17, 2022 (Urgent Measures concerning National Energy Policies, Business Productivity and Investment Attraction, as well as Social Policies and the Ukrainian Crisis), converted, with amendments, into Law No. 91 of July 15, 2022, brought before this Court by the Regional Tax Court of First Instance of Rome by order of June 27, 2023, registered under No. 145 in the Register of Orders 2023 and published in Gazzetta Ufficiale della Repubblica No. 45, Special Series No. 1, of the year 2023.

Considering that in the a quo proceedings, ENI spa filed an appeal against the Revenue Agency concerning the tacit rejection of the request for reimbursement of the amount paid as an extraordinary contribution pursuant to Article 37 of Decree-Law No. 21 of 2022, as converted;

Noting that Assorisorse - Risorse Naturali ed Energie Sostenibili intervened in the proceedings, with a document filed on November 28, 2023;

That, in support of its standing, the intervener: a) identifies itself as "[a] Confindustria association [...] composed of approximately 100 companies engaged in the enhancement of natural resources"; b) highlights that ENI spa is its "effective member"; c) states that it therefore has a "statutory duty of representation and assistance towards its members" which would oblige it "to intervene in these proceedings";

That Article 2 of its statutes, in establishing the purposes of the Association, provides, among other things, that the entity provides "technical, economic and legal assistance to its Members in the definition and implementation of their activities" and that subsequent Article 5 provides that the Association protects "the common interests of its Members, assuming their representation in relations with the competent Authorities";

That, according to the intervener, since Article 37 of Decree-Law No. 21 of 2022, as converted, "affects a specific sector of economic activity" and since in that sector the Association "plays an important role in representing and protecting the interests of the [economic operators] operating therein", it would be the bearer of an "institutionalized interest of the category" that would legitimize it to intervene in these proceedings.

Considering that this Court has repeatedly clarified that, with regard to entities representing collective or sectoral interests, such as the intervener, intervention in incidental proceedings on constitutional legitimacy is inadmissible if they claim, with respect to its object, only an indirect interest, generally connected to the statutory purposes of economic and professional protection of its members (Order No. 202 of 2020);

That this Court further highlighted in Order No. 37 of 2020 that this is even more true today, in light of the current Article 6 of the Supplementary Rules for Proceedings before the Constitutional Court, which allows non-profit social formations and institutional entities representing collective or diffuse interests relating to the issue of constitutional legitimacy to submit a written opinion to this Court as amicus curiae;

That the interest of the intervening Association, with respect to the object of the incidental proceedings on constitutional legitimacy concerning the existence of a right to reimbursement of the extraordinary contribution paid by ENI spa, is only indirect, generally connected to the statutory purposes of technical, economic and legal protection of its members;

That, therefore, it does not hold a qualified interest, immediately related to the substantive matter brought before the Court, which would legitimize its intervention, given that it does not have a legal position susceptible of being immediately and irremediably prejudiced by the outcome of the incidental proceedings, but merely an indirect and more general interest connected to the statutory purposes of protecting the interests of its members;

That, therefore, the intervention of Assorisorse - Risorse Naturali ed Energie Sostenibili is inadmissible.

For These Reasons

THE CONSTITUTIONAL COURT

declares inadmissible the intervention in the proceedings by Assorisorse - Risorse Naturali ed Energie Sostenibili.

Signed: Augusto Antonio Barbera, President