Factbox: the constitutional reform bill

(ANSA) - Rome, October 12 - The Senate is set to vote Monday in what is its third reading of Premier Matteo Renzi's flagship constitutional reform bill. Following is a rundown of what that reform will entail, should it be approved into law as it stands today.
    Under the reform, the Lower House will have most of the lawmaking powers and will be the only house authorized to give the government a vote of confidence. Its members will still be 630, to be elected directly by voters.
    The Senate will be reduced from the current 320 members (315 elected Senators plus five life Senators) and will made up of 95 members to be named by regional councils following voter indications, plus five Senators appointed by the president of the republic for a seven-year term, making a total of 100.
    The new Senate will include 74 regional councillors and 21 mayors.
    The new, reduced Senate will only have full lawmaking powers as far as constitutional reforms and constitutional law.
    It will also be empowered to ask the Lower House to change ordinary laws, but the request will not be binding.
    As far as Senate requests on laws pertaining to the relationship between the State and Italy's 20 regions, the Lower House can only ignore them if an absolute majority is in favor. Citizens will get to pick their future Senators when voting in regional elections. They will have the option of indicating which candidates for regional councillor they think should also become a Senator. This measure was introduced by a leftwing dissenting minority within Renzi's Democratic Party (PD), which argued it is more democratic for Senators to be elected by voters instead of being named by other elected officials.
    The Senate seats will be divided among regions according to their demographics, with at least one mayor per region.
    The new Senators will enjoy the same immunity as Lower House MPs, and can't be arrested or wiretapped without Senate authorization.
    It is unlikely Italian voters will see their leaner Senate before 2020, because its membership depends on regional elections and these have varying schedules.
    So-called transitional norms will be in place in the meantime.
    As far as federalism, the State has taken back from regions responsibilities such as energy, strategic infrastructure, and the national civil protection system.
    The government can ask the Lower House to legislate on regional matters "when required to safeguard the republic's juridical or economic unity, that is, the national interest". The reform also says government bills will must be debated and voted on following specific deadlines.
    The nation's president will be elected by a joint session of the 630-member Lower House plus 100 Senators.
    Two-thirds of those votes will be needed to elect the president in the first three rounds of voting. In case of a fourth round, three fifths of the votes will be needed; from the seventh ballot on, a majority of the assembly will be sufficient.
    Before, the president was elected in a joint session by the 630 members of the House, the 320 members of the Senate plus 58 regional delegates, with a two-thirds majority of 674 votes required for a candidate to be elected on the first, second or third ballots. After that, an absolute majority of 506 votes was required.
    Of the five Constitutional Court judges named by parliament, three will be appointed by the Lower House and two by the Senate. Before, five judges on the 15-member court were elected by a joint session of both houses. It will take 800,000 signatures (up from 500,000) to introduce a popular referendum, and it will become valid if half of voters who turned out in the last general election cast their ballot, instead of half of registered voters.
    It will take 150,000 (up from 50,000) signatures to introduce a bill written by the people. The Lower House will have to set out specific times and deadlines for the debate of such bills.
    The reform would also allow the Lower House to appeal current electoral laws to the Constitutional Court, if requested by one fourth of its members. The measure would apply in the current legislature, so it is possible that Renzi's so-called Italicum electoral bill could end up getting appealed as soon as it becomes law. The bill also deletes provinces from the Constitution as the premise for their abolition.
    It also abolishes the National Council for the Economy and Labor (CNEL), which was established by the Charter in 1948 as a body of experts that acted as a consultant to parliament.