(Finance) – Noting “the exceptional attractiveness of the national coastal heritage”, with the sentences 17 and 18 published last November 9, the Council of State established that starting from December 31 2023 “all state-owned concessions must be considered free of effect, regardless of whether or not there is a person taking over the concession “. Beyond that date, there will be no possibility of further extension, not even through legislation, and the sector will in any case be open to competition rules. A deadline set to allow the PA to “undertake as of now the operations functional to the call for tender procedures”, and to “allow the Government and Parliament to dutifully approve legislation that can finally regulate in accordance with the legal system community issue of state-owned concessions “. A commitment that, three months later, the government intends to honor. Following the Brothers of Italy’s motion against the Bolkestein directive, the the issue of bathing concessions will be discussed today in the Council of Ministers with the aim of identifying new ad hoc measures.
The executive points to avoid that the European infringement procedure results in a maxi-sanction, while protecting legitimate interests. What lies ahead – as assured a few days ago by the Minister of Tourism Massimo Garavaglia it’s a solution that “protects the sector” through the protection of the interests of family-run businesses typical of the sector and of the investments made so far. But if the majority parties agree on the need for a reform of the legislation on state-owned maritime concessions that gives certainty to the sector and protects companies and workers, there is no shared position on the solutions front. Before the meeting of the CDM the Minister for Regional Affairs, Mariastella Gelmini, he will meet the representatives of the Regions, Anci and Upi, to share the guidelines of the provision on which the executive is working. The reform of the bathing concessions expected today on the table of the Council of Ministers – according to what is learned from government sources – should be introduced with a amendment to the draft law on competitioncurrently under consideration by the Senate.
League And Come on Italy fight on the need to guarantee acquired rights, the Five Stars movement is in favor of the start of public tenders, while the Pd he asks to address the question “without ideological wars”.
“It is unfair to sell off the Italian coasts to foreign operators, while we cannot do anything abroad. There is no reciprocity of the rules” thunders the president of Assobalneari, Fabrizio Licordari. At the center, for Assobalneari, there is the question of mapping. “The competition decree refers to an important step, namely mapping. It is an important step – explains Licordari – because if the resource is not scarce the directive does not apply. If there are many free coasts, the directive does not apply. In Italy this is certainly the case, there will be 50 percent of the free coasts. If we want to seriously address this problem, we must start from the certain result of the mapping, otherwise it means that there is a criminal design and with the excuse of the directives we want to liquidate the national assets “. A complaint also comes from Federbalneari Italy which has started a mapping activity with its own study center to make up for the existing gaps. “The Government has extended the reform of bathing concessions also to lakes and rivers (law 13 October 2020, n. 126) but in the mapping of the existing one it has not taken into account the (large) numbers concerning these realities and which drastically change the perspective of the entire regulatory framework “underlines Federbalneari in a note, signed by President Marco Maurelli, addressed to the President of the Council of Ministers Mario Draghi.
As recalled by the Council of State, the persistent absence of an organic national regulation of state-owned concessions maritime generates a situation of serious opposition with the rules to protect competition imposed by EU law, because it allows automatic and generalized extensions of the current concessions (the last, moreover, of an abnormal duration, up to 31 December 2033), thus preventing anyone wishing to enter the sector from doing so.