Analogously to what occurs in other European Countries,the current policy of the European Union concerning the economic and monetary union is having a dramatic impact on Public Administration and utilities in Italy.As for Public Administrations,efficient services have to be provided,and even distributed via the Internet,to citizens and enterprises.On the other hand,the deregulation of the market is aimed at promoting a higher level of competitiveness:today also "natural" monopolies (like energy,gas,water,and telecommunications) are forced to competition.This new paradigm requires an organizational change which has a significant impact on information systems and on their most valuable component:the database.In this paper,the authors present the impact of the European policy on databases in two case studies:Regione Lombardia,an Italian Local Public Administration located in Milan,and ACEA,an Italian Energy Undertaking located in Rome.The authors show common issues related to the impact of the new legislation on database design and maintenance.In particular,the authors discuss issues related to the re-design of databases to be federated or split,as a consequence of the new legal context.