The Friuli Venezia Giulia Region has approved the guidelines to launch the selective procedures for the renewal of maritime state concessions. This was announced by the regional councilor for heritage and state property Sebastiano Callari. The guidelines allow coastal municipalities and the Region itself tostart of public evidence procedures for the choice of new dealers starting from 31 December 2024, expiry date of the titles according to national law 118/2022. As the councilor explains, «the guidelines, in addition to reporting the legislation and jurisprudence regarding maritime state property, outline the prodromal activities aimed at the exact identification of the assets, the selection procedures, the forms of publicity of the procedures of assignment, participation requirements and criteria for comparing applications”.
In future tenders, the quality of services will weigh 80% on the evaluation of the overall offer, while only 20% will be allocated to evaluating the economic offer: «This is a fundamental prerequisite for continuing to invest in excellent services that make the tourist offer in Friuli Venezia Giulia distinctive», underlines Callari. «Consistently, the dealer who intends to grow by expressing himself in terms of quality should be rewarded». The guidelines also provide for the possibility of guaranteeing the right of first refusal “where there is a prevailing public interest in carrying out the activity on the beach, as in the case of services aimed at schools, social assistance, support for disabled people or health-related activities”.
Particular importance was then given to the possibility of guaranteeing that, within the state-owned areas assigned under concession, a portion of state-owned maritime area to be used as a free beach, with basic services (i.e. saving and cleaning) carried out by the dealer. «It is a precise political choice – Callari claimed – which this council, unlike in the past, wanted to take care of to guarantee free access to the beach even for those who cannot or do not want to bear the costs for further services».
The guidelines also indicate the possible criteria and objectives for the development of maritime state property, on the basis of which the competing requests can be evaluated. In conclusion, according to the councilor «Let’s finally overcome that situation of uncertainty in which the concessionaires of state maritime property, which represent a significant economic and social reality that deserves to have legal guarantees for the future and development, were unable to plan and make the necessary investments. At the same time, it was not possible to implement projects for the valorisation of maritime state property in the absence of certainties on the procedures for assigning concessions and their respective durations”.
The imminent approval of the guidelines was announced a month ago and is the result of an in-depth discussion with all interested parties. As Callari underlined, it was «a great job that involved the Region, the legal profession and local authorities, in particular the coastal municipalities, the Port Authority, the State Property Agency and the Coast Guard. I thank all the local authorities, and in particular the Municipality of Lignano Sabbiadoro, who made themselves available and with great foresight dialogued with the Region with the aim of giving a certain answer to the operators and municipal officials who were in the impasse of not knowing how to proceed between tenders and requests for extensions”.
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