Page 204 - Supplemento 2-2016 (ENG)

gian carlo caselli

The current system is characterised by the dissolution of effective penal
provisions of the law, mostly with regard to the final consumers of food. The
current system is weak as it is mostly oriented to protect industrial and intellec-
tual property rights against the phenomenon of counterfeiting resulting in a
marginal care to tackle frauds. Hence the need to reform such a system.

Minister Orlando has set up a Panel of Experts in view of this situation,
with decree of 20 April 2015, in order to discuss proposals and develop an
action plan in the field of the food farming industry. Such Panel, which I had
the honour of presiding over, is made of high level intellectuals and of experts
in this field: university professors, lawyers, judges, administrative officials,
representatives of social partners and of the law enforcement (in particular- I
say this not just because currently they are the Forces mostly if not exclusively
represented- Carabinieri and State Forestry Department).

We worked very well, intensely and in October 2015 the Minister could
receive from the Panel a paper with 49 articles. The Minister discussed these
with the social partners, involving everybody and handling all issues. Now, in his
institutional sovereignty, he will make a decision. He publicly stated that this will
happen soon and will start the parliamentary procedure for the proposed bill.

The reform is very innovative but I’m afraid I have no time allocated to
explain it to you and, above all, I do not wish to bore you with a strictly techni-
cal discussion. However, I can limit myself to outline the main points on which
the project focuses a sort of quick reference.

The new criminal law aims at being not too invasive but at the same time
not too lenient, since it provides also for more socially relevant conducts. It
should aim at being a more modern criminal law taking into account such instru-
ments elaborated at European level as traceability, rapid alert, and risk analysis.

A criminal law which can be differentiated and every time measured in a dif-
ferent way, articulated according to the disvalue of the behaviours and to the dif-
ferent stages of the production chain. A criminal law which can be used both in
case of detrimental practice on the protected goods and also in case of simple
risks (forgive the use of the adjective simple) deriving from modern technologies.

A criminal law which will appear somehow “non-timid”- this is a crucial
point in the reform- able to state that the moment in which the financial crime

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