The Council of State confirms the expiry of state concessions for beaches on 31 December last year, thus obliging municipal administrations to disapply any exemptions on 31 December 2024.
The reference sentence is number 03940/2024, published today and decided by the VII section on 12 March.
In their verdict, the judges - who ruled after the appeal presented by the owner of a factory in Rapallo, Liguria - refer to the «principles of the EU Court of Justice, 20 April 2023, and to all previous European jurisprudence, urging the competent bodies to "immediately start the tender procedure to assign the concession in a truly competitive context".
Consequently, they underline the obligation for municipalities to disapply the exemptions by confirming the expiry of the concessions on 31 December last year.
Furthermore, the sentence contests the fact that the beach resource "is not scarce", a thesis instead supported by the government in the mapping carried out by the government and sent to Brussels and brought due to the failure to apply the Bolkenstein directive.
After the sentence, the first political reactions immediately arrived. «Today, with the ruling of the Council of State, the beach mapping work of the Meloni government has been disproven, having extended Italian beaches by 3,000 km, taking them from 8,000 to 11,000 km, only to demonstrate that Italian beaches are a disposable asset and therefore not send the current state concessions out to tender" , comments Green Europe co-spokesperson and Green and Left MP Angelo Bonelli. He adds: «The ruling establishes not only that it is illegitimate to extend maritime state concessions, but also that beaches are a scarce resource. Contrary to what is defined by the government mapping. The fraudulent game was also revealed by a court."
(Unioneonline/lf)
