Yet another twist in the story beach concessions. The State Council in fact it confirms the expiry of state concessions for beaches on 31 December last year, thus obliging the administrations to disapply any exemptions on 31 December 2024, and recalls “to the principles of the EU Court of Justice” to give “immediately launched the tender procedure to assign the concession in a truly competitive context”. The sentence underlines that the beach resource “it is poor”.
Sentence No. 03940/2024, published today and decided by the VII section on 12 March, concerns a 2023 appeal by an owner of a beach establishment in Rapallo. The judges refer to the “principles of the EU Court of Justice, 20 April 2023, and all previous European jurisprudence to immediately start the tender procedure to assign the concession in a truly competitive context”.
This decision provoked the anger of the beach resort categories. Second Marco Maurellipresident of Federbalneari Italia, “yet another ruling from the Council of State does not even respect the Draghi law on the terms of 2024, pending a long-awaited reform of the seaside sector, nor the work required by the services directive on mapping that the Government is managing, nor the negotiations formal with the EU Commission for a reform that we now believe is necessary to bring order to the sector. Against the courts that make the rules by replacing Parliament and also intervening on Euro-unitary principles. A chaotic situation that our country certainly cannot afford once the season has started. We are dismayed.”
The reaction of Giuseppe Nucera (Assobalneari Calabria)
The cry of protest also rises from Reggio Calabria. Giuseppe Nucerapresident of Assobalneari Calabria and tourism entrepreneur, represents the anger and determination of an entire sector that doesn’t agree and is ready to react. “The Council of State’s ruling is the result of prejudice and has the sole result of destroying the jobs and future of 30 thousand families who work with passion in the seaside sector. This is a driving sector for the country’s economy, a flagship attracted by the interests of multinationals ready to take over beach establishments with a dominant position that is the exact opposite of the free and competitive market that should regulate the same ”.
“We seaside entrepreneurs – assures Nucera – we will react promptly and with force compared to the latest illogical sentence of the Council of State. Next week we will find ourselves in Lamezia in a protest demonstration, stimulating the national government to give a strong and clear response to our reasons by June 9th. The hatred of part of the administrative judiciary towards entrepreneurs in the seaside sector is clear, an aversion which then generates sentences like the latest, totally incomprehensible and crazy, of the Council of State. These bureaucrats, closely linked to Brussels, carry out the shady intentions of multinationals to take over our coasts.”
The former president of Confindustria Reggio Calabria concludes. “We demand a response from the Government quickly, we also ask Governor Occhiuto, who will be invited to the event scheduled in Lamezia, to express his opinion on this matter. From the national and regional government we hope for clarity regarding a long-standing and shameful affair. In Calabria there are 800 kilometers of coastline, there is space for anyone who wants to invest. There are no valid reasons to destroy the hard work of us entrepreneurs.”
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