“Balneari, the extension of concessions on the beaches does not help private individuals or citizens and the environment”
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The mayor of Lecce, Carlo Salvemini, at the center of the story after the appeals of his Municipality, tells how the new amendment goes against “the will of Europe and the Council of State”. And you keep delaying the need for a tidying up and balance between public and private beaches.
A new round, in the endless question of beach concessions in Italy, which appears as a “slap in the face” for those who are fighting in an attempt to put concessions out to tender instead of proceeding with the usual automatic renewals or almost negligible state fees.
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The Budget and Constitutional Affairs commissions of the Senate have in fact just given the green light to the amendments that will allow the current beach concessions to be extended by one year, until 31 December 2024, and allow five more months for the delegation on the mapping of the given beaches under concession.
A green light which – albeit dictated by the need to have more time to unravel this complex affair – goes in the opposite direction both to what Europe is asking for, which with the Bolkestein directive pushes for the liberalization and banning of beach concessions, and to the judgment of the Italian Council of State. At the end of 2021, in a plenary meeting, the Council had in fact decided to forfeit all the concessions existing on Italian beaches as at 31 December 2023: it maintained that they should be put out to tender and without further postponements.
If we had arrived at the intervention of the Council, to put a certain point on the dispute, it is mainly due to the mayor of Lecce Carlo Salvemini. The mayor of Puglia – following the indications of Europe – had in fact decided for a reorganization of the concessions in his territory: a decision that infuriated the seaside resorts, who immediately ended up at the TAR of Lecce to appeal and the court agreed with them.
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Despite the unfavorable pronouncement of the Court of Review, Salvemini turned to the Council of State to have a definitive sentence on the interpretation of the rules: the magistrates effectively agreed with the mayor, adding also the impossibility of further extensions and recalling that the market for concessions had to be opened.
Since then, between changes of government, clashes with trade unions and an endless political debate, little has moved. “But citizens and the environment, from the need for a greater balance between free and private beaches to interventions on the coasts, can no longer wait”, explained Mayor Salvemini to Green&Blue.Mayor, how do you judge the new amendments that further extend the concessions?
“It is a measure that arises from an evident electoral need to present itself to the vote in Lazio with an offer towards the seaside resorts, who are particularly strong there. The measure is in clear and sensational contrast with the sentence of the Council of State which expressly provided for any unlawful extension with respect to the indicated deadline of 31 December 2023 and which instead is in fact postponed by a further twelve months.Therefore, on the one hand there is the electoral need, on the other the awareness of a provision in open conflict with the Council of State and Europe”.
Yet the ruling of the Council of State speaks for itself…
“If you read the sentence, the magistrates had already imagined that a postponement could come and for this reason, very clearly, they had indicated in the text that there shouldn’t have been. Instead, with this new choice, we are once again exposing ourselves to a call for sanctions by the Europe and moreover the responsibility for further measures is consciously and unfortunately transferred to the Municipalities which will find themselves having to disapply the government rule because it is in open contrast with the will of the Union, as sanctioned by the Council of State. , the son of a political party who is notoriously and proudly alongside the existing seaside concessionaires and who acts indifferent to competition rights”.
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Between environmental problems, lack of free beaches and automatically reassigned concessions, what tools do municipalities have to deal with all this?
“Few. Moreover, there is a further measure taken by the government: an amendment that announces the establishment of a technical table aimed at governing this passage on the beaches and which expressly excludes the presence of the Municipalities through its own association, the Anci, which is not present at the table. So the municipalities, which have a decisive role in this matter, are considered irrelevant even for a comparison. It all seems absurd, crazy, a slap in the face”.
How can this further extension affect the environmental impact?
“We in Lecce have tackled the issue with a coastal municipal plan for the design of state-owned public space which addresses the issue of sustainability, protection and enhancement of the territory. But in my opinion one of the legislative decrees that is not talked about enough and which should be addressed is related to the relationship that should exist between public and private beaches.In fact, it does not exist in many Italian regions where about 90-95% of the bathing coastline is given under concession to private individuals and this prevents millions of families to be able to enjoy a state property such as the sea, often because in conditions of economic hardship such that they cannot afford an umbrella and a sunbed.In Puglia the regional law speaks of 60% free and 40% under concession, but elsewhere this often does not happen. The decree should therefore be responsible for affirming this choice as a liberal principle.This would also be good for environmental policies: we need more balance between public legal and private, which would benefit both in terms of sustainability and for reasons of social equity, guaranteeing many people to go to the beach without having to spend”.
Do you think the postponement is in favor of seaside resorts?
“For me there is little benefit for beach resorts – who had already guaranteed the 2023 season anyway – because it leaves them in a limbo of uncertainty when in reality they too need a reorganization of the sector: in the new concessions they can be protagonists because it is not the seaside tourist offer model is being questioned, but the criterion for issuing concessions is simply being revised, and I am quite convinced that many of those who are already operating today would be in a position to reapply and obtain the assignment”.
What do Italian beaches really need?
“I repeat: a greater balance between public and private and more rights for citizens who go to the sea. Today, however, it is believed that it is more important to offer a model, that of seaside resorts, which no one questions, but which in my opinion notice can be neither the only, nor exclusive and prevailing”.
Confidence in a solution in the short term, or do you think everything will have to be postponed to 2025?
“I believe that these are the final blows. The horizon is clear. By now the path is marked and it goes towards a review of the concessions. It is in everyone’s interest, including seaside resorts, to deal with the matter as soon as possible. Before someone arrives to impose it – such as Europe – I would like politics to reappropriate its functions: it would be good for the environment and for the citizens”.
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