Last update: 22/06/2004

Agencies System

APAT 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 Laws. 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 APAT 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 (Italian Environment Protection and Technical Services Agency) it also provided for the creation of a Federal Council, chaired by the APAT’s Director General and composed of the legal representatives of environmental protection Agencies. The Council has advisory functions on agreements between Agencies and the Ministry of Environment with particular regard to: fund allocation and resource utilization; technical and operational methods in carrying out ARPA and APPA activities and the APAT’s duty of coordinating ARPA and APPA Agencies. Other structures that are shared by the Agencies are National Thematic Centres (CTN), created in resemblance of European Environment Agency provisions. Agencies participate to this joint project according to their specializations and technical excellence.
The need to coordinate, promote and harmonize technical and operational methods for the activities of regional and provincial agencies over the whole country and the need to exchange opinions on common issues and deepen knowledge on organizational and managerial issues, led Agencies to create a research and monitoring structure. This is the Observatory on the Organization and Management of ARPA and APPA Agencies (ONOG).
It was created in November 1999, by a voluntary agreement between the ARPA-APPA and ANPA, and renewed in March 2003 with a three-year agreement between the APAT and ARPA-APPA. Its duty is to develop surveys and fund researches on particularly sensitive themes of interest to the Agency System.