Giudizio incidentale promosso in sede di certificazione dei contratti collettivi: per evitare le cc.dd. zone d’ombra la Corte costituzionale estende la nozione di giudizio a quo ad ulteriori controlli della Corte dei conti, purché a carattere interdittivo (nota alla sentenza 8 maggio 2023, n. 89)

INCIDENTAL ADJUDICATION REQUIRED WITHIN CERTIFICATION PROCEEDINGS OF COLLECTIVE AGREEMENTS: TO AVOID SO-CALLED GREY AREAS, THE CONSTITUTIONAL COURT EXTENDS THE NOTION OF «A QUO» JURI-SDICTIONAL PROCEEDING TO ADDITIONAL FORMS OF CONTROL BY THE COURT OF AUDITORS, PROVIDED THEY HAVE AN INTERDICTORY CHARACTER. The note analyses how the Constitutional Court, in ruling No. 89 of 2023, was asked to assess the unconstitutionality of postponing the financial coverage of a collective bargaining agreement to future budgetary decisions. Beyond the substantive issue, the decision is relevant because it allows the audit section of the Court of Auditors to raise an incidental constitutionality opinion even on the occasion of a certification audit. This extends the casuistry of situations in which even in the exercise of the audit – in order to avoid so-called grey areas in the Constitutional Court’s cognizance – the Court of Auditors is still considered jurisdiction, for the purposes of access to constitutional adjudication; and this is because of the interdictory and definitive features typical of the certification of collective agreements, as ap- plied in the accounting court’s living law