S. MARINELLA – The holy war of the minority list Coalition Futuro continues, against the resolution issued by the Municipality which renews the seaside concessions for ten years. The opposition political leaders let it be known that the National Free Sea Coordination is carrying out a battle throughout Italy in favor of the free use of the beaches and the application of the European law which obliges all Municipalities to declare the beach concessions concluded on the 31st December 2023. “The Municipalities should have issued new tenders for new concessions to protect the public interest of bathers, expired concessionaires and aspiring concessionaires – says Coalition Futuro – in Santa Marinella, the Municipality, instead of considering the maritime state concessions expired for tourist-recreational purposes in 2023, as the law established, illegitimately extended them until 31 December 2033. The Municipality proceeded with the extension of the concessions with a resolution of the Council, in which it correctly referred to the law of 30 December 2018, the State Budget Law, which provided for a further extension to the European directive known as the Bolkestein Directive, relating to services in the common European market. This law, however, was challenged and repealed by two sentences of the Council of State and the European Court of Justice. The subsequent law on the market and free competition issued by the Draghi Government finally applied the Bolkestein directive without further delay”. For this reason, the national coordination Mare Libero sent a warning, addressed to the Mayor Pietro Tidei, to the delegate for production activities Emanuele Minghella, to the manager of the Maritime State Property sector Cavallero, to the Competition and Market Guarantor Authority, to the agency of the regional state property, to the Coast Guard, to the Archaeological Superintendence, to the Regional Prosecutor’s Office of the Court of Auditors and to the Prosecutor’s Office of the Court of Civitavecchia. “The legislation – continues Coalition Futuro – is unequivocal and does not allow any extension, neither to 2024 nor to 2033, as precisely described in the Municipality’s determination. It is not clear why a procedure for renewing the concession until 2033 was started in the form of a public notice via the Notice Board, asking any other subjects to express interest in the concession within the 20-day deadline, not exactly a public tender for qualifications that European legislation prescribes. To highlight that things were not done in accordance with the law, is the fact that the same municipal procedure which extends the concessions to 2033, inserts a sentence with which it explicitly relieves the administration “from any direct or indirect responsibility, in the event of declared invalidity, ineffectiveness or nullity, in relation to the superordinate non-EU legislation, of this supplementary time extension license”. “This means – concludes the minority – that the administration itself does not guarantee the procedure it endorsed, leaving the beach concessions extended until 2033 in regulatory uncertainty. In fact, for three beach concessions, the notice trick did not ensure continuity of management until 2033, as multiple competing applications had been received. For these three concessions the Municipality would therefore have decided, with a resolution of the Council, to proceed with the public tender. The managers of the three concessions therefore challenged the aforementioned resolution at the TAR, denouncing the illegitimacy of the entire procedure. In reality, the route chosen by the Municipality to circumvent European legislation does not offer any certainty to either beach concessionaires or those who frequent the beaches. Wouldn’t it have been more appropriate for the Municipality to proceed with public tenders that reward small youth businesses and the best services to the citizen?”.
