Consular services: two resolutions approved by the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Chamber of Deputies

We share with our fellow citizens the news that the Foreign Affairs and Community Affairs Committee of the Chamber of Deputies has approved two resolutions on strengthening consular services abroad.

These are resolution 8-00100, signed by Billi, Porta, Toni Ricciardi, Carè, Di Sanzo and Quartapelle Procopio, and resolution 8-00101, signed by Onori. The texts ask the Government to activate a mobile operational task force and to implement temporary strengthening measures for the consular offices under the greatest pressure, as well as completing and strengthening staffing levels where vacancies persist.

Among the offices expressly mentioned in the texts is Manchester, whose difficulties have been represented by Comites through institutional acts and discussions over recent years, including an official hearing on the matter before the same Committee.

We thank all political forces for the joint work between majority and opposition that enabled the unanimous approval of the acts.

We will share all updates on further developments with fellow citizens as soon as we are informed.

The texts of the resolutions can be consulted below, translated by us.

(8-00100) “Billi, Porta, Riccardo Ricciardi, Carè, Di Sanzo, Quartapelle Procopio”.

The Foreign Affairs Committee, whereas:
from 3 August 2026 paper identity cards will cease to be valid and the consular network is already under strong pressure for the issuing of CIE identity cards and passports;
the first signatory of this act of guidance has repeatedly represented the urgency of taking action to resolve the critical situation;
among the consular offices requiring strengthening for user services are Barcelona, Basel, Frankfurt, Geneva, Lugano, Manchester, Stuttgart, Zurich, as well as the main non-European consular offices,

commits the Government

to assess, compatibly with available financial resources, the activation of an operational task force composed of personnel sent on short-term assignment, to support the already ongoing strengthening process of the consular network, including for the issuing of CIE identity cards and passports, reducing waiting times.

(8-00101) “Onori”.
The Foreign Affairs Committee, whereas:
according to consular register data, the district of the Consulate of Italy in Manchester has 124,427 Italian citizens, making it the second highest-density area of Italian citizens in the United Kingdom after the capital, the 20th largest Italian community in the world, and one that is constantly growing;
as highlighted by a study conducted by the Consulate itself and by the Comites of Manchester, the district has specific characteristics, linked both to the practical need for Italian citizens to hold a passport after Brexit and to the significant presence of secondary migration, which creates specific and often complex administrative needs;
in 2024 Manchester had one staff member for every 6,848 citizens, with an average of 804 passports per staff member, a significantly more critical figure than offices such as London, with one staff member for every 4,995 citizens, or Cologne, with one staff member for every 4,571;
despite the commitment of the personnel in service, the very high overall numbers recorded for the main services result in serious difficulties for users, with waiting times of over seven months for the issuing of passports by postal application and chronic saturation of appointments at the Consulate for passports, electronic identity cards and citizenship; telephone lines are open only two hours per week;
as communicated by the Government in response to question no. 5-04279, first signed by the mover, the Executive, while recognising increasing demand for services at the Manchester office, indicated a staffing increase that should have reached 9 career staff and 10 contract staff by the end of 2025;
however, despite the strengthening measures mentioned, the administrative pressure resulting from the constant growth of the Italian community in the North of England requires structural and local solutions that can no longer be deferred;
similar difficulties regarding the adequacy of consular staffing in relation to the growth of resident Italian communities and demand for services are also recorded, although to different degrees, at other European offices particularly exposed to increasing administrative pressure;
among these, the consular office in Basel represents a unique case in the Swiss context, being the only one among the main Italian offices in the country not to have the rank of Consulate General, despite the high number of resident Italian citizens and the economic and strategic importance of the district;
according to some reports, Basel has for years recorded a discrepancy between the planned staffing establishment and the personnel actually in service, with an understaffing situation that significantly limits the office’s capacity to respond to the growing demand for consular services, in a territorial context characterised by one of the highest costs of living in the world;
some difficulties are also recorded in Copenhagen, where the Italian community in the consular district has grown significantly in recent years, having substantially doubled in a decade; this is a situation that is nonetheless being addressed through a gradual increase in the office’s staffing;
other consular districts, such as Barcelona, are experiencing increasing administrative pressure resulting from the steady growth of the resident Italian population and the high demand for consular services; in particular, alongside a steady increase in the AIRE population, from 133,287 to 147,524 citizens between 2024 and 2025, with further exponential growth in the first months of 2026 as reported by the Consulate itself, there was at the same time a reduction in personnel in service from 32 to 31 units over the same two-year period; however, the current number of personnel in service is 33;
this situation, despite the commendable commitment of consular personnel and the significant increase in processed applications compared with previous years, causes ongoing difficulties in access times to services for fellow citizens, fuelling widespread tension and dissatisfaction among users and exposing consular personnel to situations of particular pressure, including potential risks from a security perspective;
among the difficulties reported at European consular offices, finally, the Stuttgart consular district presents problems both in terms of accessibility of services and with regard to the issuing of Electronic Identity Cards, CIE; in particular, the consular office still lacks full accessibility for people with disabilities, while waiting times for the issuing of CIE cards remain high, despite the approaching deadline of 3 August 2026, from which non-biometric identity documents will cease to be valid for expatriation purposes,

commits the Government:

1) to assess, compatibly with available financial resources, the adoption of extraordinary temporary strengthening measures at the consular offices most exposed to operational difficulties and administrative backlogs, including through the creation of dedicated task forces and the sending of personnel on short-term assignment, in order to guarantee reasonable service delivery times, with particular reference to passport, citizenship and electronic identity card applications;

2) to assess, compatibly with available financial resources, the completion and strengthening of staffing levels at the consular offices concerned, ensuring, where possible, full coverage of the planned staffing establishments and monitoring any persistent vacancies or difficulties in assigning personnel, including by identifying the causes that hinder staffing stability in certain offices and by adopting appropriate measures to guarantee their attractiveness and operational continuity, in order to bring the service standards of the offices concerned back into line with those of the main European consular offices.