Annul the Decree of the Regional Councilor for Territory and Environment of the Sicilian Region n. 1784 of 30 December 2023, which provided for the extension of state maritime concessions expiring on 31 December 2023, until 31 December 2024.
Legambiente Sicilia requests this, with an extraordinary appeal presented to the President of the Region Renato Schifani, who will be responsible for the decision, after having acquired the opinion of the Cga.
For the environmentalist association, the extension is illegitimate because “in open violation of European rules and jurisprudential guidelines established in the field of maritime state concessions, protection of competition and consumer rights, as well as in the field of environmental protection”.
On the issue, the Council of State, with a ruling in November 2021, had already declared the extensions of state concessions illegitimate, because they were in violation of the Bolkenstein directive.
The illegitimacy was reaffirmed just a few days ago, on April 30th.
Even the Regional Administrative Court of Catania, on 2 April, on the basis of the ruling of the Council of State, declared the regional councilor’s decree ineffective.
Environmentalists also denounce the failure to implement the sentence of 5 May 2022, with which the Constitutional Court declared the constitutional illegitimacy of article 3 of regional law no. 17 of 21 July 2021, which for a period allowed maritime state concessions to be released in the absence or without prior verification of consistency with the provisions of the Pudm, the Use Plans for maritime state-owned areas.
For the Council, in fact, the plans “they carry out an essential function not only of regulating competition and economic management of the sea coast, but also of protecting the environment and the landscape, guaranteeing, among other things, their common use even outside the bathing establishments, through the destination of a share of free beach equal to fifty percent of the coastline”.
The canceled law resulted in a lowering of the level of environmental and landscape protection in the coastal municipalities in Sicily.
“Beaches are a common good – states the president of Legambiente Sicilia Tommaso Castronovo –which cannot be taken away from the community, while bathing establishments often become real clubs, even at night, which occupy state property all year round.
Both free use and management by private individuals must take place in compliance with environmental parameters and sustainability, avoiding creating harm”.
Legambiente Sicilia therefore asks the Regional Department of Territory and Environment to place the Municipalities that have not drawn up and adopted the Pudm under commissionership by the deadline of 30 June 2021, as also reiterated and provided for by a Resolution of the Regional Council of 20 January 2023, which remained unapplied for over a year.
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