Assobalneari Italia and Assobalneari Calabria, with the support of FederTurismo Confindustria, announce an important assembly in response to the recent ruling of the Council of State, number 03940/2024, which directly affects the Calabrian seaside sector. The event will be held Thursday 9 May 2024at the Grand Hotel Lamezia Terme, at 4:00 pm.
They communicated their participation in the event coordinated by Giuseppe Nucera (among others) Fabrizio Licordari, President of Assobalneari Italia, sen. Maurizio Gasparri, the Hon. Gian Marco Centinaio and sen. Fausto Orsomarso.
The controversial decision, which obliges administrations to disapply any exemptions until 31 December 2024, has sparked a strong reaction among entrepreneurs in the sector. The ruling, decided by the VII section on 12 March and based on the principles of the Court of Justice of the European Union of 20 April 2023, imposes the need for a competitive tender procedure for the assignment of concessions for beach establishments.
To understand in detail the evident discrimination to the detriment of the seaside sector, the considerations expressed a few days ago by the economist Stefano Fassina on article 12 of the Bolkestein Directive and its implications are important.
Stefano Fassina criticizes the Bolkestein Directive in particular for its tender mechanism which he considers radically discriminatory towards small businesses. He maintains that the process is not taking place on fair ground, but on a slope that favors large companies, to the detriment of small beach establishment managers, local market operators and taxi drivers. Fassina highlights the concession of stretches of beach in Jesolo to Geox as an example, showing an empirical demonstration of this imbalance.
According to Fassina, the directive does not take into account the differences between companies, treating small family businesses and multinationals equally, which creates unfair competition. Larger companies benefit from internal resources that allow them to better access and evaluate opportunities, while small businesses face prohibitive costs and lack of access to such information.
Giuseppe Nucera, president of Assobalneari Calabria and entrepreneur in the tourism sector, expresses the frustration and determination of an entire sector that does not passively accept the decision: “The ruling of the Council of State destroys the jobs and future of 30 thousand families who operate with passion in the seaside sector. We will react forcefully against this illogical sentence and we will find ourselves in Lamezia in a protest demonstration, asking the Government for a strong and clear response”.
The event which will be held on Thursday 9 May will see the participation of illustrious members of the government and the tourism sector, including the Honorable Roberto Occhiuto, President of the Calabria Region, and other institutional representatives invited to discuss and find solutions to this crisis which threatens one of the driving sectors of the regional economy.
The assembly will be an opportunity for operators in the sector to interact directly with institutional representatives and to develop concrete proposals for the future of seaside tourism in Calabria.
