There is an issue that most of all agitates the political arena and risks creating fractures within the variegated majority that supports the Draghi government, alternating and merging with other urgent issues, such as the extension of the Green Pass.
The problem concerns the rich business of bathing concessions, where the rents are infinitesimal compared to the amount of turnover they generate, even if, at least formally, the question would concern concessions of all kinds, including the stalls of street vendors, which have already taken to the streets in Rome.
We need a blow of the sponge and a liberalization of the concessions, which can no longer be entrusted directly, as has happened up to now, but will have to undergo a tender procedure and be entrusted to the highest bidder. Competition and the Bolkesten directive that Draghi as a good pro-European certainly cannot ignore. An issue that can only enter the competition dl at the examination of Palazzo Chigi with a straight leg.
What is the Bolkestein directive
The directive in question was issued in 2006, on the proposal of the then Commissioner for Competition, Frits Bolkestein, from whom it takes its name. Its objective is clear: to ensure competition within the EU in the provision of services.
Its purpose is essentially to ensure equal access to all professionals and companies operating in the European Union, including the concessions sector, for which a regular call for tenders would be needed.
The Antitrust report and the tile on Papeete
The question of “concessions”, which was put down by the Lega under the Conte government, which was limited to extending it for years until 2033, arises from a report by the Antitrust to the Draghi government, because Italy risks the opening of a ‘infringement.
The Agcm was clear: an immediate reform is needed, avoiding the distorted use of the instrument of concessions, maintaining the status quo and automatic renewals.
The authority makes it a question of limiting competition and asks for the immediate repeal of the 2018 law, which extended the concessions, and the start of a correct selection procedure, through a tender and equal access. A tile on Papeete as on Folavio Briatore’s exclusive Twiga!
The dimension of the phenomenon
In Italy there are over 61 thousand concessions on more than 3 thousand kilometers of beaches. Concessions relating to bathing establishments, according to the Legambiente report, are 12,166 and in three years they have grown by 12.5%.
For the State, the proceeds from concessions amount to 115 million euros (year 2019) but only 83 million have been collected, the rest to replenish the backlog that reaches 235 million.
It merits that each concession is worth 9,200 euros, but the amounts paid by the bathing establishments are much lower and above all the revenues from the concession much higher, just imagine that a gazebo at the Briatore Marina di Pietrasanta plant costs 1,000 euros per day and that Papeete invoices 2m3m2 million to pay less than 10 thousand as rent.
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