The European Commission said Thursday
that it was opening an infringement procedure against Italy for
breaching EU law in its handling of beach concessions.
The EC said it was taking issue with the fact that concessions
to beach establishments are automatically extended.
In Italy privately run beach establishments rent out loungers
and provide life guards and services such as showers.
They usually have a bar or a restaurant.
Much of the best areas of Italy's coastline are taken up by such
establishments, which limits options for people who just want
to throw down a towel on the sand and have a day at the beach
for free.
The Commission said that Rome had failed to implement a 2016
Court of Justice (CJEU) sentence that ruled the practice "to
automatically extend existing authorisations of beach
concessions was incompatible with EU law".
Since then Italy has extended the existing authorisations until
the end of 2033 and prohibited local authorities from launching
or continuing open public selection procedures for the
assignment of concessions that would otherwise have expired, the
EC said.
"Member States have an obligation to ensure that authorisations
that are limited in number due to a scarcity of available
natural resources (e.g. beaches), are granted for a limited
duration and through an open, public selection procedure based
on non-discriminatory, transparent and objective criteria," the
Commission said .
"The Commission considers that the Italian legislation, in
addition to the inconsistency with EU law, contradicts in
substance the CJEU's judgment mentioned above and creates legal
uncertainty for beach tourism services, discourages investment
in a sector that is key to the Italian economy and already hit
hard by the coronavirus pandemic while also causing a
potentially significant loss of income for local Italian
authorities".
Italy now has two months to respond to the Commission.
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