Beach concessions, Rome-Brussels confrontation. Emilia Romagna: let's go it alone.

The issue of beach concessions is being reignited. After Italy's response in January on the EU ultimatum for the application of the Bolkestein directive, the European Commission, says a Brussels spokesperson, "is in close contact with the Italian authorities to discuss possible solutions". "There is a discussion on the reasoned opinion of the European commission that is going on, with its complexities," confirms Minister Raffaele Fitto, while government sources have learned that the dossier will be addressed in one of the next meetings of the Council of Ministers. In the infringement procedure initiated against Italy, the European executive underlines, the reasoned opinion sent to Rome last November "is the last step before a possible referral to the EU Court of Justice".

A stalemate situation in which Emilia Romagna is breaking through: 'The time of promises and talk is over,' said the regional councillor for tourism Andrea Corsini. 'Now let us take the situation into our own hands and lead the bathing beach resorts to a safe harbour. Let us take it upon ourselves to save our entrepreneurs and our beaches'. 'We will rely on the Draghi decree,' the Region announces, 'to resolve an issue that concerns over 1,500 businesses, we are talking about entire families. And we have to do it ourselves, since this government has not only done nothing, but has worsened Italy's position in Europe'.

The Emilia-Romagna Region's objective is to "write and deliberate common and shared guidelines to help coastal administrations make public announcements" for calls for tenders for beach concessions. They will begin to talk about this in substance at the end of August, when a meeting has already been scheduled in the Region with the coastal municipalities and the associations of bathing establishments. "This government," says councillor Corsini, "has already sufficiently demonstrated its total incompetence, fooling businesses with false promises and putting all citizens in the position of having to pay penalties for not applying Bolkestein. This is not an electoral issue, but the living skin of people who risk losing their businesses because of the executive's inability to put its hand to the matter seriously and in compliance with the law. It is now two years since we presented our document to give concrete support to the national reform. A measure that was widely shared with the territory and that had all the elements, from the recognition of the value of the company, the investments made and the professionalism of the managers to the social and environmental sustainability of the investment plan, to close the matter definitively and positively. We were not listened to. Now we will go it alone to save our entrepreneurs and our beaches'.

In the absence of a measure that would give "certainty to public and private operators on the bathing issue, we are forced to confirm the mobilisation of the category" on Friday 9 August, which foresees the delayed opening of establishments by two hours. This was announced by the presidents of Sib-Confcommercio Antonio Capacchione and Fiba-Confesercenti Maurizio Rustignoli. "We note that government sources have pre-announced a measure in one of the next Councils of Ministers," they add, announcing that "in the coming days the governing bodies will meet again to evaluate the announcement and possibly confirm or suspend the demonstrations planned for 19 and 26 August".