Ddl competition, the center-right gets bogged down on the seaside

The center-right gets bogged down on the seaside resorts. And the Competition bill risks running aground. These are hours of feverish negotiations between the Senate, where the government’s proposal is under discussion, and Palazzo Chigi. But they are even more so within Lega and Forza Italia.
What is happening on the most delicate point of one of the qualifying laws of the Draghi government?
The text approved by the Council of Ministers provides that for the beaches the competitions would all have to start by 31 December 2023. A date not chosen at random but indicated by the sentence of the Council of State which set the deadline by the end of next year. within which it is necessary to start the competition on the concessions of the shores.
Also in the text of the government, a series of protections for entrepreneurs in the sector are envisaged. Palazzo Chigi had in fact made it known, when the amendment to the bill was approved in February, that the text provided for “a delegation to the government for the adoption, within six months, of one or more legislative decrees to simplify the discipline on state-owned concessions for tourist-recreational purposes “. Furthermore, it was made known that the “criteria for choosing the concessionaire” would be those of already acquired technical and professional experience, in any case such as not to preclude new operators from entering the sector; subjects who, in the five years prior to the start of the procedure, used the concession as the main source of income for themselves and their family; the provision of social clauses to promote the employment stability of the staff employed by the outgoing concessionaire; the duration of the concession for a period not exceeding what is strictly necessary to guarantee the amortization and fair remuneration of the authorized investments, with an express prohibition of extensions and renewals, even automatic ones “.
Now, these safeguards are in danger of being blown up. The rapporteurs of the bill, Paolo Ripamonti (Lega) and Stefano Collina (Pd), have in fact prepared a draft that provides for a distinction: only publicly-owned areas that are free and eligible for tender will certainly go to tender by 2023; for those already employed, it is requested to carry out a mapping before going ahead with a public tender procedure. A mapping which will take years to carry out. In fact, this is a further masked extension.
As soon as the draft of the speakers began to circulate in the newspapers, someone will have their hair on end at the Council of State. In fact, in the two December sentences, the highest body of administrative justice established that that in the future they should still have) the automatic extension of state-owned maritime concessions for tourist-recreational purposes … are in contrast with the European Union law … These rules, therefore, must not be applied either by judges or by the public administration “. Not only that, but in the judgments of Palazzo Spada it is also written that «even if there have been deeds of extension issued by the Public Administration…. the existence of a right to the continuation of the relationship in the hands of the current concessionaires must be excluded … The non-application of the law implies … that the effects produced by it on the concessions already granted must also be considered tamquam non esset “. Finally, the third, heavier principle enunciated by Palazzo Spada is that “in order to avoid the significant socio-economic impact that would derive from an immediate and generalized forfeiture of all existing concessions, to take into account the technical times so that the administrations the tender procedure required and, also, in the hope that the legislator intervenes to reorganize the matter in accordance with the principles of European derivation, the state-owned concessions for tourist-recreational purposes already in place continue to be effective until 31 December 2023, without prejudice to it being understood that, beyond that date, even in the absence of a legislative discipline, they will cease to produce effects, despite any possible further legislative extension that might occur in the meantime, which should be considered without effect because in contrast with the rules of the legal system EU ».
In practice, if the rapporteurs’ proposal passed, the institution of “non-application” would be triggered and all the concessions would go to tender without any protection for the current beach managers. When the center-right realized that instead of protecting the seaside resorts it would have damaged them, it stopped everything and is now looking for a solution.