Risk of chaos for the management of state concessions on the beaches with the municipal administrations going in no particular order and the government promising to resolve the issue by January.
The plant managers are alarmed. «We are concerned about the timing and urge the government to proceed without delay with the issuance of every legislative and administrative provision for the safety of this economic sector, which is strategic for the country» repeat the representatives of the companies associated with Sib – Confcommercio and Fiba – Confessors. The Minister of Infrastructure, Matteo Salvini, tried to do so and yesterday managed to put in black and white an information in the Council of Ministers in which the government undertakes to close the work of the technical table on the evaluation of the “scarcity” or otherwise of the beaches and to identify a solution with the European Commission. And in which, above all, municipal administrations are urged not to proceed with the tenders. «It is appropriate to prevent the competent administrations from taking heterogeneous initiatives, which could have negative repercussions on the system» says the government statement which therefore invites them to exploit the option provided by law to avoid the launch of tenders in the presence «of objective reasons that prevent the carrying out of the assignment procedures within the regulatory deadlines”. «It is important that the Council of Ministers has invited the peripheral administrations to avoid launching tenders» take note of the beach resorts who however judge the government’s commitment as “important but not sufficient” to give “serenity” to the sector which instead asks for « certainties”.
Precisely due to the absence of national legislation regulating the assignment of state-owned maritime concessions expiring on 31 December, the Council of Rimini, the leading seaside destination in Italy for tourist presences and which owns 470 concessions including establishments and sports associations, was the first to move on its behalf, formally starting the process for the tenders but at the same time deferring the expiry date of the existing concessions for the time necessary to call the tenders, making use of the postponement year ‘for objective difficulties’ provided for by law, i.e. the so-called Draghi competition decree. “While Rome remains at a standstill, the Municipalities are forced to run alone” the Rimini administration commented in recent days. And in fact, there are many municipalities that have moved on their own. After Rimini and other municipalities on the Romagna Riviera, Ravenna has also started the procedures for beach tenders, extending the current concessions to the end of next year. Genoa has also moved in this direction. Other municipalities, however, limited themselves to the extension, starting from Liguria. And Viareggio, Marina di Pietrasanta with its over 100 beach establishments did it, the Municipality of Fiumicino did it, which covers 24 kilometers of coastline with around a hundred establishments including those of Fregene and Maccarese. Even in Puglia many municipalities have already decided to extend: Bari chose to do so in October, then followed by Lecce, Brindisi and Taranto. San Benedetto del Tronto did so while Ancona did not adopt extensions. Just as the Municipality of Sirolo did not do so. No extension resolution in the Municipality of Pesaro, which in reality had anticipated the times: it was the first Municipality in Italy, in 2019, to carry out a public tender procedure for the renewal of the seaside concessions until 2033, in the absence of a different legislation. A chaos, in short, on which political controversy boils down. FdI points the finger at the PD-led municipalities that are “sowing chaos in Romagna”. The M5s accuses the government of the “obscene mess, which has only one person responsible: Giorgia Meloni”. And the Democratic Party condemns «the latest idea, at this point madness, of producing a press release with the Council of Ministers. As if a press note were jurisprudence.”