Making the legislative process more resilient in the Chamber of Deputies of Italy

The World e-Parliament Report 2022 shows the depth of parliamentary innovation that resulted from the COVID-19 pandemic, capturing how parliaments have changed as a result of their experiences to become more resilient and innovative. Members are more trusting of technology as a result. Riding this wave of change and embracing innovation, the Chamber of Deputies of Italy deployed new hybrid working methods for members and their staff to digitally engage with the legislative process, including remotely.

In 2016, the chamber introduced the Geo-Camera app, a kind of “digital briefcase” for members, as a way to minimize paper processes and to provide digital access to documents from smartphones and tablets, both on and off the parliamentary premises. During the pandemic, when access to the Palazzo Montecitorio – the seat of the Chamber of Deputies – was limited, new modules were added to the app to support the digital submission of parliamentary inquiries, interpellations, amendments, motions and bills. The Committee on the Rules of Procedure, following a proposal by the President of the Chamber of Deputies, encouraged both MPs and their assistants, especially staff of parliamentary groups, to use the app for submissions. The President of the Chamber communicated this decision to MPs via email, and reminders were sent as part of weekly parliamentary activities for communication planning purposes. 

As an example of these changes, the recent annual budget session, held from 6 to 24 December 2022, was conducted digitally. Members submitted a total of 3,104 amendments and 375 sub-amendments through Geo-Camera. These arrived in real time on the relevant committee’s dashboard, after which committee staff compiled and published the digital amendment dossiers. Members, in turn, were able to digitally (and remotely) acknowledge or appeal decisions of inadmissibility. During the consideration stage in hybrid committee meetings, members both physically and remotely present can use the app to read the current text under examination from their personal devices in real time.

Post-pandemic, all of the described functionality, including the remote capabilities and digital amendment workflows, will remain available. Geo-Camera will be expanded to include a module for real-time consultation of texts under examination in plenary sessions. With these innovations and the additional flexibility they provide, the Chamber of Deputies is embracing and promoting the benefits of a modern workplace, showing how hybrid technologies can support more efficient working practices and make the legislative processes more resilient.

For this article, the CIP team spoke with Giovanni Ciccone, Parliamentary Adviser in the Informatics Division at the Chamber of Deputies of Italy.