Law No. 9 of 26 January 2026: the new system for monitoring underwater activities
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With Law No. 9 of 26 January 2026, which came into force on 11 February 2026, the Italian legislator filled a long-standing regulatory gap, providing the Country with a comprehensive and systematic framework governing activities conducted in the underwater dimension.
The measure comes against a backdrop in which the growing intensification of operations on the seabed - from the installation of energy infrastructure to the laying of telecommunications cables, through to scientific research and the use of advanced robotic technologies - had made it no longer possible to defer the establishment of a unified legal framework capable of overcoming the regulatory fragmentation and overlapping of competences that have characterised the sector to date.
Set against this background is the heightened attention, at European and international level, to the protection of critical underwater infrastructure, rendered all the more urgent by recent incidents involving damage to cables and pipelines on the international seabed.
The cornerstone of the new system is the establishment of the Agency for the Safety of Underwater Activities (ASAS), a public body operating under the coordination of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers, tasked with serving as an information and decision-making liaison between private operators and public authorities.
This article aims to illustrate the principal features of the new regulatory framework, with particular attention to the preventive control mechanism, the authorisation regime and the operational implications for companies in the sector.
Please read the alert written by our professionals, Simone Cadeddu, Jacopo Nardelli, Massimiliano Castriconi and Giulia Serio, at the following link.
