Bathing establishments, the government's plan on compensation and extensions. And the risks with the EU

In the days when beach concessionaires were announcing and then dividing on the beach umbrella lockout, the government was working on the new plan to be submitted to the European Commission. After several confidential discussions with various members of the majority, one working hypothesis seems to have overtaken the others in the field and a draft is ready.

The details, exposed to Il Sole 24 Ore by an authoritative parliamentary source, envisage an articulated mechanism of dates, between tender procedures and new extensions. In the minimum case the current concessions would remain valid until 31 December 2025, in the extreme case until 31 December 2029.

But let us go in order. As things stand, according to the government, despite the rulings of the Council of State and the EU's findings, the existing concessions are effective until 31 December 2024 or until the end of 2025 if there are objective reasons preventing the conclusion of the tenders. The new text goes further. It envisages new criteria for starting the tenders but provides for a first dry extension, until 31 December 2025. However, this is not enough.

At the same time, if this line discussed in recent days goes through, the government intends to relaunch the work of mapping the coasts, integrating the first version as requested by Brussels both with disaggregated data on a regional basis and with qualitative data: in other words, it is not enough to say that there are free beaches, but it must be understood whether they are really accessible, whether they are of appeal to potential new concessionaires. The Prime Minister should adopt the mapping with a Prime Ministerial Decree by 30 April 2025 and that will be the decisive step to really define, region by region, the extent of the extensions. In regions where the share of the surface area that can still be granted is less than 25%, the existing concessions would be extended until 31 December 2027. In regions where the share is less than 25%, the extension would even be extended until 31 December 2029. And only when these dates expire would the old concessions be put out to tender. In other words, the government would have decided to insist with the EU on the thesis that where there is no 'scarcity of the natural resource' (where, to summarise, there is a clear prevalence of beaches already available for new potential concessionaires) the current concessions can still be extended for a longer period. Local authorities could in the meantime put stretches of free beach out to tender. It is a thesis that has already proved fragile on several occasions in the eyes of the Commission, most recently when the government sent the letter of reply to the reasoned opinion that dangerously advanced the infringement procedure, the antechamber by now of referral to the EU Court of Justice.

A difficult compromise is needed in extremis. In essence, according to what has been reconstructed by Il Sole 24 Ore, the government is waiting for an informal opinion from the Commission on the new text and, only if there is a real opening, will proceed by inserting it in the Save-Infractions decree, which at that point could land in the Council of Ministers as early as the end of August.