The 12.5.21 ruling by the Lazio Regional Administrative Court (TAR) annuls the agreement by which Gabriele Papa Pagliardini–director general of AGEA in a conflict of interest with Coldiretti already censured by the European Commission (1)–excluded freelancers from CAAs, Centers for Assistance in Agriculture.
#CleanSpades break into administrative justice.
AGEA-CAA, the outlawed convention.
AGEA, the General Agency for Agricultural Disbursements, uses CAAs to handle applications for public grants from agricultural enterprises. Based on an annual AGEA-CAA agreement. However, Gabriele Papa Pagliardini – DG of AGEA a business partner of Coldiretti’s magic circle (2,3) – has imposed, by 2021, the exclusion of about 3,000 freelancers from providing this type of service to Italian farmers and ranchers.
The 2021 convention-overuse would thus have forced CAAs to use only their own employees or those of companies contracted to them, i.e., ‘service companies.’ With the obvious purpose of distorting competition in favor of the dominant agricultural union. As proof of this, Gabriele Papa Pagliardini himself, on 6.11.20, assured only Coldiretti’s CAAs of an additional competitive advantage (through exclusive arrangement for facilitated file management).
TAR Lazio, judgment 12.5.21
The Lazio Regional Administrative Court, in a ruling on 12.5.21 (see attached), upheld the appeal of the freelancers and annulled the AGEA-CAA 2021 agreement insofar as it would have excluded freelancers from access to SIAN (National Agricultural Information Service). #CleanVangas sharpen, pending decisions on three other appeals filed by other CAAs headed by freelancers:
– CANAPA, Heracles Association. Agrotechnicians and graduate agrotechnicians, agronomists, land surveyors, engineers, certified public accountants, etc.
– SAE, with reference to land surveyors,
– UNICAA, with regard to agronomists. (4)
#CleanSpades, the calm before the storm.
A public debt storm under the name Recovery Fund is about to unleash on Italy, with greater intensity than in other European countries. Much of the rainfall will flow through the channels of AGEA, whose poor management was censured by the Court of Auditors in its report 28.1.21 to the House and Senate. (5) AGEA led by Gabriele Papa Pagliardini has burned through €4 billion of 2014-2020 CAP funding already allocated to Italian farmers.
Gabriele Papa Pagliardini’s conflicts of interest with the Coldiretti magic circle have been the subject of several questions, from the European Parliament to the Commission, from the Senate to the Italian government (2,3). The European Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development, Janusz Wojciechowski, responded, if only in part. (1) And former minister Teresa Bellanova vanished, predictably. (6)
Minister Stefano Patuanelli now has the responsibility to remove the bad apples from AGEA, starting with Papa Pagliardini, and reclaim MiPAAF. Blocking fellow travelers who venture public jaunts, (7) before the storm causes further damage.
Dario Dongo
ANNEX CAA free judgment Prof.
Notes
(1) Dario Dongo. AGEA – Coldiretti, European Commission rejects conflict of interest. GIFT(Great Italian Food Trade). 3/24/21, https://www.greatitalianfoodtrade.it/progresso/agea-coldiretti-la-commissione-europea-boccia-il-conflitto-d-interessi
(2) Dario Dongo. Conflict of interest AGEA – Pagliardini – Coldiretti, questions to the European Parliament. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade). 30.1.21, https://www.greatitalianfoodtrade.it/idee/conflitto-d-interessi-agea-pagliardini-coldiretti-interrogazioni-al-parlamento-europeo
(3) Dario Dongo. Coldiretti, Federconsorzi 2 and the director of AGEA. Senate Question. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade). 8.1.21, https://www.greatitalianfoodtrade.it/mercati/coldiretti-federconsorzi-2-e-il-direttore-di-agea-interrogazione-al-senato
(4) On the other hand, the TAR had rejected the previous appeal of the National College of Agrotechnicians, against the same AGEA resolution, affirming the lack of active legitimacy of a professional order on a matter that would concern only the relations between CAAs and AGEA
(5) Dario Dongo. Report of the Court of Auditors on AGEA directed by Gabriele Papa Pagliardini. #CleanSpades. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade). 12.3.21, https://www.greatitalianfoodtrade.it/mercati/relazione-della-corte-dei-conti-sull-agea-diretta-da-gabriele-papa-pagliardini-vanghepulite
(6) Dario Dongo. The minister of agriculture we want. GIFT(Great Italian Food Trade). 1.2.21, https://www.greatitalianfoodtrade.it/idee/il-ministro-dell-agricoltura-che-vogliamo
(7) Dario Dongo. Livestock system and biodiversity, public disbandment. #CleanSpades. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade). 3/31/21, https://www.greatitalianfoodtrade.it/mercati/sistema-allevamento-e-biodiversità-sbando-pubblico-vanghepulite
Dario Dongo, lawyer and journalist, PhD in international food law, founder of WIISE (FARE - GIFT - Food Times) and Égalité.
