EU Commission pressing on the Italian government for the “Balneari” question
Brussels is urging Rome to align to the Bolkestein directive also in this field to promote competition in the concessions sector. “The issue – European sources report – needs to be resolved “urgently”. The Commission is ready to send a reasoned opinion by Wednesday, with a request to Italy to comply “within two months”. The President of the Council Giorgia Melonifor its part, it would be “busy to submit proposals to the EU a lot quickly“.
“I made a commitment: that anyone who wants to continue the sacrifices of their grandparents and parents, by law will have the right to manage those beaches”, reiterated the deputy premier Matteo Salvini, in an electoral meeting in the province of Lucca. “I believe that not only the economic criterion should be evaluated, otherwise the first multinational on duty arrives and greetings to the seaside resorts ”, Salvini clarified. “We are an autonomous force. The local businesses come first compared to those who come from the other side of the world, this is the principle that is guiding us” he added.
Meanwhile it is waiting for next Thursday a new ruling European Court of Justicewhich will be binding and must therefore be taken into consideration by the government.
A sword of Damocles
“Italy risks being deferred to the EU Court of Justice for the extension of the beach concessions, after 28 months of infringement procedure”, reported Riccardo Magisecretary of Più Europa, warning that Italians “will be forced to pay for the anti-competition choices of the government, concerned with defending the interests of a few rather than the good of all”.
The Bolkestein Directive, so named after its author, the then Internal Market Commissioner Frits Bolkestein, was enacted in 2006 to regulate the services sector in the common European market, ensure complete liberalization and guarantee competition. The directive aims at ensure free access to the markets and has invested the sector of bathing as well as that of the clinicsthe result of state concessions to be awarded by tender.
(Ticker)