The Regions and Their International Activities

The Regions' foreign competences operate in two directions (that are analysed in this paper): one projected externally (entering into agreements or memorandums and more generally taking part in activities ranging beyond the purely domestic sphere), and the other mainly domestic (implementing commitments undertaken at the international level). Seeking to strike a balance between the arguments supporting exclusive State competence and those supporting the need of local governments to play a part in external activities is the leitmotif running through the analysis of matters relating to the "Regions' foreign competences", that existed both prior to the reform of Title V and in the legislation enacted to implement it. Indeed, this is one of the typical cases of tension between the principles of autonomy and of unity, which characterizes any system with a territorial division of powers and a division of competences.