Meloni’s front with the EU: the CdS rejects the extension of the seaside concessions

The Council of State returns to express itself on the beach concessions: it does so, once again, reiterating the need to tender the current state properties by the end of 2023. The ruling, filed yesterday and published on March 1, accepted the appeal of the Agcm (Authority for the competition and the market) against the twelve-year postponement that the municipality of Manduria, in the province of Taranto, had decreed for its factories in 2021. The text states that the rule contained in the Milleproroghe bill approved by government “stands in frontal contrast” with European legislation: the reference is, once again, to the Bolkestein directive which obliges Italy to tender. The sentence ends with a clear and unequivocal appeal: the government’s rule “goes accordingly disapplied by any organ of the state“.

The opinion of the Council of State comes a few days after the letter with which the Quirinale accompanied the approval of the government bill. Mattarella had feared the hypothesis of the exercise of article 74 – with which the head of state can block the process of a bill by requesting its revision – adding, however, that the urgency of the other deadlines made Colle’s signature inevitable. The concern of the Quirinale was addressed in particular to the relations with Brussels, which has repeatedly called Italy to align itself with European directives. The sentence of the Council of State can only complicate an already tense dossier and increase the pressure on the executive.

The legal consequences are added to the political consequences. In fact, with the sentence filed yesterday it is declared that, in the event of a conflict between the Milleproroghe rule and European legislation, “priority must be given to the secondwith the consequent need for all the authorities of the member state, whether they are courts or public administrations, disapply the internal law in favor of the supranational one“. This essentially means that whenever a person decides to place a tender, he can appeal the sentence of the Council of State making the European jurisdiction prevail over the national one and de facto sterilizing the government regulations. In short, the sentence creates an irreproachable precedent and fuels a chaos in which each plant will be able to go its own way. Unless the government decides, in the light of the latest developments, to definitely change its mind.