Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Forest Policy (Italy)

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The Palazzo dell'Agricoltura , headquarters of the Ministry

The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Forestry ( it. Ministero delle Politiche Agricole, Alimentari e Forestali ) is one of the ministries of the Italian government . It is headquartered in the Palazzo dell'Agricoltura on Via XX Settembre in Rome . Acting Minister is Teresa Bellanova .

history

The history of the ministry goes back to the Kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont , from which the Kingdom of Italy emerged in 1861 .

On December 7, 1847, the new State Secretariat for Public Works, Agriculture and Trade was established in Turin . In the wake of the revolution of 1848 and the imposition of Karl Albert's constitution ( Statuto Albertino ), the state secretariats were renamed ministries. On that occasion, the State Secretariat for Public Works, Agriculture and Trade was divided in August 1848 into the Ministry of Public Works and the Ministry of Agriculture and Trade. The latter was beaten in 1850 and the Navy Department to, was dissolved by the Ministry of Marine, agriculture and trade in the year. 1852 These postponements and dissolutions were primarily in the interests of long-time minister and prime minister Camillo Benso von Cavour , who wanted to keep various parts of government business under his control despite a formal change of office.

In the course of the unification of Italy under the House of Savoy , the Ministry of Agriculture, Industry and Trade was created on July 5, 1860. As such, with a brief interruption between 1877 and 1878, it existed until June 22, 1916, when it was divided into a Ministry of Agriculture and a Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labor . These ministries were merged in 1923 under Benito Mussolini in the new "Ministry of National Economy". On September 12, 1929, the Ministry of Agriculture and Forests emerged from this. It existed under this name until 1993. In the course of time, the Italian regions took on more and more competences, which is why the original tasks of the ministry increasingly decreased. For this reason, it was abolished in a referendum in 1993 . This gave rise to the problem that Italy was no longer able to participate in the Common Agricultural Policy at European level as before and that there was no coordinating authority at national level either. For this reason, shortly after the referendum, the "Ministry for the Coordination of Agricultural Policy" was created, which was subsequently renamed twice until it was given its current name in 2006.

Until 2016, the ministry had its own police authority, the Corpo Forestale dello Stato . The CFS staff were largely taken over by the Carabinieri .

tasks

Because of the above-mentioned primary responsibility of the Italian regions, the Ministry mainly takes on coordination tasks and represents Italy at European and international level in the fields of agriculture and forestry, hunting and fishing, animal and environmental protection, as well as nutrition and consumer protection. At the national level, the ministry takes on all tasks in the areas mentioned that do not fall within the direct responsibility of the regions, provinces or municipalities.

organization

The political leadership consists of the minister and one or two state secretaries . The latter are not civil servants in Italy, but politicians. The ministry is subdivided into a management area and three main departments ( Dipartimenti ):

  • Main Department for European and International Politics (2 departments)
  • Main department for competition and quality policy (3 departments, 2 other organizational units)
  • Main Department for Consumer Protection and Fraud Prevention (2 departments)

There are also some scientific advisory boards and institutes as well as subordinate authorities. The Ministry is functionally subordinate to the Carabinieri special command for forest, environmental, agricultural and consumer protection (Comando carabinieri per la tutela forestale, ambientale e agroalimentare) , which was formed in 2016 from the aforementioned Corpo Forestale dello Stato and other Carabinieri units. The Coast Guard also maintains a support command at the Ministry.

Web links

Coordinates: 41 ° 54 ′ 17.9 "  N , 12 ° 29 ′ 42.1"  E