Agencies System

Update: 16/02/2011

ISPRA belongs to a network system known as the Environmental Agency System. In Italy, there are currently 21 Regional Agencies (ARPA) and Provincial Agencies (APPA) established with specific Regional Law. It is an example of a consolidated federal system, which matches direct knowledge of the territory and local environmental problems with national environmental prevention and protection policies. The network is actually a reference point, both institutional and technical/scientific, for the whole country. The establishment of ISPRA represents the system’s cohesion, while respecting local territories. It favours a more homogeneous development of cooperation and collaboration issues.
Indeed, the need to create opportunities of exchange and discussion between ARPA and APPA Agencies, in order to promote a more coordinated development, emerged since the establishment of the first Regional Agencies. For this reason, when the new law established the APAT years ago, and now ISPRA, it also provided for the creation of a Federal Council, chaired by the ISPRA’s Director General and composed of the legal representatives of environmental protection Agencies. The Council has advisory functions on agreements between ISPRA and the Ministry of Environment, Land and Sea, with particular regard to: fund allocation and resource utilization; technical and operational methods in carrying out ARPA and APPA activities and the ISPRA’s duty of coordinating ARPA and APPA Agencies.