«In this regard, the Board, after having ascertained the correct completion of a specific public procedure pursuant to the Navigation Code, accepted the complaints raised by the defense of the four appellant companies, judging the initial actions of the Administration as legitimate when it had the extension to 2033 was recognized.
More precisely, the TAR Puglia reasonably respected and followed the recent orientation traced by the seventh section of the Council of State (30 November 2023, n. 10378), whose jurisprudence has fully equated the procedures provided for by the Navigation Code to those provided for by the new Code of public contracts. In this direction, the judges of the TAR established that “the procedure envisaged by the navigation code and the implementing regulation respects the need to ensure competitive comparison between economic operators in the sector […]” and that “the provision that extended the effectiveness of the appellant’s state concession should not be understood as an automatic extension […]”.
Therefore, the Municipality of Barletta had done well to initiate an administrative procedure following the discipline dictated by the Navigation Code and to subsequently recognize the extension to 2033 in favor of companies already in possession of the concession title. In fact, the procedure carried out by the Administration allowed any counter-interested companies the possibility of taking part in the procedure and expressing their interest. Since there had been no demonstration to this effect, the terms of the law had been observed, the Municipality of Barletta recognized the extension in favor of the outgoing concessionaires. Enough to induce the Board to point out that we are “in the presence of a real procedural extension far from any automatism”, in perfect harmony with European Union law, in particular with the Bolkestein directive and the recent jurisprudence of the Court of Justice.
Ultimately, these are four sentences of great importance not only for the companies holding the concessions, whose legitimate expectations have finally and fully been protected, but also for the municipal administrations, since they definitively recognize the legitimacy of the public tender procedure as regulated. from the Navigation Code. Regardless of what the legislator decides (if he decides), these rulings, in doing justice to the companies that have taken legal action and in arousing confidence in all the others, at the same time restore a legal framework that is certainly clearer and comforting compared to the past.”
