Local public services and public companies in the framework of the economic Constitution

Abstract

The expression public service, without prejudice to the extensive doctrinal debate on the definition, can be said to refer, in the final analysis, to the exercise of an administrative function aimed at the realization of a collective interest. This makes the management of a public service difficult to harmonize with the competition principle; what, on the other hand, became necessary when the legislature decided to flank the traditional forms of management of local public services with the use of corporations. The problem of harmonizing this general principle of the market economy with the characteristics of public services, which are inevitably linked to the policies of the entity that assumes them, arose immediately. Laws have been numerous and characterized by the need to cope with the remarks that EU made to a model that, originally, appeared indeed not so compatible with competition principle. So, a disorganic discipline that caused the general model of state-owned company to be affected in some way, thus posing problems that also pertain to the model defined by the economic framework of Constitution, which provide public intervention in the economy and public ownership of corporations.