In the resorts, during the Council of Ministers two days ago, minister Matteo Salvini’s line prevailed. The government issued a guidance letter to inform administrations about the possibility of extending the validity of concessions until December 31, 2024. According to the circular, this new extension is useful to complete the public test aimed at the reassignment of concessions. The government will then have to respond with an opinion by mid-January, to be sent to Brussels on the beach resort dossier. The beach concessions expired tomorrow based on a decision by the State Council that in November 2021 canceled the extension until 2033 and imposed competitions within two years to comply with European legislation. This decision was implemented by law 118/2022 of the Draghi government, which granted an extra year, until December 31, 2023, to municipal administrations to have the necessary time to establish public testing procedures for the reassignment of concessions. The executive decided to extend it for one year, until December 31, 2024 (with the exception of until December 31, 2025 in case of impossibility of completing the competitions), but a few days later the Council of State declared the illegitimacy of this rule, because it represented a automatic renewal in conflict with European law.
The issue that the Meloni government is playing on is article 12 of the Bolkestein directive, which requires competitions to be held only if resources are scarce. For this reason, last summer the Presidency of the Council created a technical table to work on mapping the State’s maritime heritage, which established the amount of 67% of free and concessionable coasts to start new businesses on the seafront and thus guarantee the competition required by Europe. This new extension was commented by the opposition: «By continuing to decide not to decide on the issue of beach concessions, the Government confirms an irresponsible attitude that has been continuing for some time and whose consequences affect the entire country. How can we think that Municipalities should assume the responsibility of carrying out automatic extensions of current beach concessions, in the absence of a clear legal provision and in the presence of a decision by the Council of State that goes in the opposite direction, with a process for infringement of the European Union supported by the jurisprudence of the EU Court of Justice?” asked Piero De Luca, Democratic Party leader on the EU Policy Committee in the House.
Bonelli from Avs is also tough: «This government wants to privatize and concrete the last beaches and stretches of coast that remain free in our country. They refer to a study carried out by Palazzo Chigi which is surreal to say the least because, with a magic trick, it extends the Italian coast by three thousand kilometers, making it go from 7.8 thousand to 11 thousand kilometers”.
Source: IL Tempo
Emma Fitzgerald is an accomplished political journalist and author at The Nation View. With a background in political science and international relations, she has a deep understanding of the political landscape and the forces that shape it.
