The endless soap opera on Sardinian bathing concessions suddenly becomes a thriller. After years of controversy, beatings by the European Union, postponements, sentences and appeals on the validity and duration of state-owned assignments to the owners of kiosks and establishments, yet another stab comes to a sector that hoped at least to exploit the latest extension given in all of Italy until 2024 before canceling everything and banning the exploitation permits of the coasts.

Judgment

In fact, a sentence of the Supreme Court was enough to sow panic, which confirmed the seizure of a plant in Genoa, guilty of having an "old" authorization issued by the Municipality in 2008 (before the 2009 Law Decree which introduced tacit extensions) and therefore excluded from the extension of concessions until 31 December 2023 sanctioned last November by the Council of State.

In short, from Liguria the supreme judges may have dug a very deep furrow that will perhaps mark the fate of Sardinian bathing establishments, for the vast majority authorized before 2009, and therefore potentially "outlawed".

Fears and hope

The Island therefore trembles. And if among the owners there are those who do not hide their anger at the umpteenth blow to a sector that in Sardinia employs thousands of people; others prefer not to bandage their heads prematurely, trusting in an intervention by the Government against the decision of the Supreme Court defined as "incomprehensible".

"We certainly did not expect such a sentence - admits Mario Isoni, regional president of Federbalneari -, but it is obvious that this is the latest in a long series of obstacles against a sector that only wants to work with certain rules that are not there. . We therefore have to wait for the reorganization of the concessions in 2024, with the hope that greater clarity will arrive. In fact, it remains a mystery how the Region, in just one year and a half, can manage thousands of concessions with an office that currently employs only three employees. Moreover, even if the department worked in record time to complete the bureaucratic procedures, the ball would pass to the municipalities for the final authorizations. In the end, therefore, a further extension will probably be necessary even after 2023 ».

Wait

Maria Annunziata Abis, head of the Golfo degli Angeli cooperative, which manages numerous establishments on the Poetto coast of Cagliari, prefers to wait before giving her opinion. «The sentence on the Lido of Genoa represents a case in itself that will not necessarily make jurisprudence. Indeed, in several points the decision of the Supreme Court goes against previous sentences. Unfortunately, the regulatory uncertainty to which the Government has condemned us is generating these absurd situations, not worthy of a civilized country ».

The entrepreneur also recalls that good news could come from Parliament working on an amendment to give more guarantees to the owners of the structures benefiting from concessions. «For years we have not been certain and this has effectively frozen the development of the sector. Who could ever invest in structures that could soon change hands? ».

Claudio Del Giudice, number one in Sardinia of the Confcommercio seaside syndicate, takes it out on the political class "which up to now has not had the courage to face the delicate chapter of seaside concessions". «For some time now we have asked not to put all companies, which have different needs and situations, in a single cauldron. But it would be a titanic undertaking and time is running out to collect funds from the NRP. A rush of which in the end the only ones to pay the consequences are the concessionaires, protected throughout Europe and instead treated as privileged in Italy ".

Luca Mascia

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