Balneari, the Council of State rejects the Meloni government

ROME. No extension for beach concessions. For the Council of State, they will be put out to tender when they expire on 31 December 2023. This is what can be seen from sentence 2192 of 1 March, filed yesterday, which rejects the rules introduced in Parliament at the Milleproroghe decreewhich became law extending tenders and concessions to 31 December 2024, extendable “for objective reasons” to the end of 2025.

Former President of the Republic Sergio Mattarellain a letter sent to the presidents of the Chamber and Senate at the time of signing, last February 24, had censured the rules desired by the Lega and Forza Italia, endorsed by the Brothers of Italy, expressing “specific and relevant perplexities”.

Now it is the Council of State – which had already expressed itself with two sentences in 2021 – reiterates that no further extensions are possible. Italy violates the Bolkestein directive on services in the common European market which aims to encourage competition especially in those economic sectors where goods are scarce, such as the state property of Italian beaches.

Sentence 2192 of March 1 refers to an old case of an Apulian municipality, Manduria, which had extended the state-owned maritime concessions to 2033 following an appeal by some beach companies. According to the president of the sixth section of the Council of State «the automatic extension of the existing state-owned maritime concessions is in frontal contrast with the aforementioned regulation pursuant to art. 12 of directive no. 2006/123/EC, and must, consequently, be disapplied by any organ of the State”.

This means that the new rules of the Milleproroghe of the executive in office must be disapplied because they are contrary to the European directive. A non-compliance that has lasted for years and has already In other words: not only the rules of the Conte government’s budget law for 2019 which extended the concessions to 2033, but also the new rules of the Milleproroghe of the Meloni government (law 14 of 24 February 2023) must be disapplied by any organ of the State because they are contrary to the EU directive, non-compliance with which has been going on for years and since 2000 Italy has been subject to an infringement procedure.