Beach operators and the uncertainty surrounding concessions: "Over 6,000 workers in Sardinia are at risk."
Confindustria: "Bolkestein's competitive procedures are not suited to the regional reality of small, family-run businesses. Without regional intervention, investments and jobs are at risk."(Archive)
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Over 6,000 beach resort workers risk not finding jobs next summer .
This is the alarm raised by Confindustria Sardegna: "The continuing uncertainty, following the postponements and extensions of maritime state concessions ," a statement reads, "risks compromising the businesses of industry operators ahead of a tourist season that will be very difficult to get off to a successful start due to the enormous restoration costs concessionaires are incurring to address the damage resulting from the storm surges caused by Cyclone Harry."
Damages amounted to approximately €10 million, but it is noted that the figure could be underestimated given a sector that includes factories, tourist ports, hotels, fish farming and fishing facilities.
After meeting with the Region in recent months, business representatives had hoped for a solution that would allow them to focus on investment programs with greater optimism. However, compliance with the Bolkestein Directive requires competitive procedures for the awarding of beach concessions, "which are ill-suited to the reality of our region, which is largely made up of micro and small businesses, often family-run, that manage beach resorts, primarily seasonally, and with significant constraints related to their insularity."
"Throughout Sardinia," Confindustria continues, "the productive sector dependent on state-owned maritime concessions comprises over 550 tourist and recreational facilities, including beachfront hotels, and 118 other businesses, including marinas, landing stages, bodies of water, and fishing and fish farming establishments ."
Businesses in the sector are urging regional intervention to identify "appropriate regulatory frameworks that recognize the specific nature of our regional state-owned concessions, with a view to avoiding subjecting them to public tender procedures, also considering the limited demand for the service."
The operators therefore reiterate their call for a regulatory framework that, in line with what has been done in other regions, protects existing concessions and allows for the necessary investments to continue: "In the absence of such a measure, businesses would find themselves operating in a climate of uncertainty that would inevitably impact the employment levels that these activities guarantee for several months of the year."
(Unioneonline)