With a new ruling published in August, Palazzo Spada confirms, to avoid any doubt, that beach concessions must be obligatorily reassigned by September 30, 2027.
The year ahead for the municipalities does not represent an extension, the judges reiterate, but a technical period compatible with the requests of the European Union, considered necessary to complete all bureaucratic and administrative requirements.
This is a final and mandatory deadline. An extension until March 31, 2028 is allowed, but only in the presence of exceptional circumstances and for objective reasons.
Beach tenders by June 30, 2027
Municipalities, therefore, cannot wait. September 30, 2027 is considered by the Council of State a close deadline with an explicitly “accelerating” function.
The tenders for the reassignment of maritime state property concessions must be published at least six months in advance and, in any case, by June 30, 2027.
Translated into practical terms, this means that by next spring the municipal administrations must have started the procedures to put the maritime state property concessions in their territory up for tender.
And when we talk about “by” it refers precisely to the interpretation of the Council of State: there is currently no law preventing municipalities from immediately starting the tenders.
The risk of appeals against municipalities
According to the judges, even the absence of a definitive national regulation detailing the tender procedures, which the Government has not yet adopted, is of no use.
The Council of State indeed emphasizes that it is possible to challenge before the administrative judge the failure to start public tender procedures.
For local administrations, therefore, a possible legal front also opens, with the risk of appeals from those who consider the failure to start tenders illegitimate.
Beach concessions, how compensation works
Another central point of the ruling concerns the compensations requested by outgoing concessionaires.
According to the administrative judges, the change of management of a beach establishment does not automatically entail the recognition of economic compensation.
Recognizable will be the investments not yet amortized made in the last five years, but only based on precise and detailed documentation.
Those who will not be able to prove the investments made and the related unamortized shares, therefore, will not be entitled to compensation.
What happens to the establishments at expiration
There is also another particularly delicate issue: that of the structures present on the maritime state property.
Upon expiration of the concession, structures considered non-removable pass to the State. The Government, in fact, has not amended the so-called article 47 of the Navigation Code, despite a possible revision of the rule having been announced in the past.
Also on this front weighs the relationship with Europe, which remains far from favorable to solutions capable of hindering the new system of concession assignments.
Beach tenders and the situation in Italy
The ruling of the Council of State does not introduce, on the merits, a revolution compared to the already outlined framework. Its main significance, however, is to clearly reaffirm that, at present, there is no Italian or European regulation that defers or prevents the start of tenders.
The concessions currently in the hands of beach establishments – not all, since some have been renewed in recent years – are therefore destined to expire in the near future.
A transition phase must be foreseen to guarantee the regular reopening of establishments in spring 2027, except in cases where the outgoing operator is again awarded the concession through the tender.
Tuscany, municipalities called to accelerate
So far, the reassignment of concessions has proceeded sporadically. This has happened on the Island of Elba, in Liguria and Veneto: in several cases the previous concessionaires have remained in place, while other municipalities have chosen to revoke the concessions and announced the intention to transform some areas into free beaches.
In Tuscany, the administrations with the largest number of beach establishments, starting with the municipalities of Versilia, seem instead inclined to buy time.
But the message from Palazzo Spada is clear: there is no more time for beach concession tenders.
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