Brussels – The Italian regime for managing coastal state property is not working. Beach concessions must be abolished and replaced by a new allocation system that is useful for competition and respectful of EU regulations on the matter and, above all, useful for the budgetary situation. Because, when you analyze the national taxation system and the revenues for the state coffers, “Significant revenue losses are observed in relation to public concessions, including beaches“.
A short passage, a line just contained in the document accompanying the country-specific recommendations that the European Commission presented together with the entire economic package which also includes the procedures for excessive deficit, also launched for the country. The community executive services place it in the more substantial chapter relating to the fiscal situation, and it is here that pressure is once again put on the government to change course. The Commission, in saying that there are “significant losses” for the Italian Treasury in relation to the concessions, is saying that a preferential price is in fact being applied, which harms competition and public finances.
A political warning arrives from Brussels, halfway between a warning, again, and a reminder, again. The decision that the European Commission itself must take regarding beach concessions hangs over Italy. The fine has so far only been postponed for reasons of political-electoral convenience and could be kept in suspense for a while longer, but the response will arrive in the end. Italy is asked to work to avoid an open clash when the time comes.
Brussels cannot do more than this. You are giving yourself more time than you might have expected. A ‘gift’ to Giorgia Meloni and her government, which appears even more objectively difficult to meet. There are two rulings of the Court of Justice of the EU (issued on 14 July 2016 and 20 April 2023 respectively) which must be implemented, and an infringement procedure. Too much to continue turning a blind eye to.
As well as it is difficult to turn a blind eye to the flat tax so dear to the Northern League component of the government. The Commission’s technical document puts in black and white that “the extension of flat-rate tax regimes, also for self-employed workers, it worsens the horizontal equity and efficiency of the tax system reducing redistribution, favoring specific categories of taxpayers and discouraging the growth of businesses”. Another warning. This too, as in the case of beach concessions, is not new.
