Beach concessions, new EU warning to Italy: “From concessions significant tax losses”

Brussels – Italy’s coastal state property management regime is flawed. Beach concessions should be abolished and replaced by a new allocation system that benefits competition, respects relevant EU regulations, and, above all, benefits the budget. When analyzing the national taxation system and the revenue for the state coffers, “significant revenue losses are observed in relation to public concessions, including beaches.”

A short passage, a line barely contained in the accompanying document to the country-specific recommendations that the European Commission presented along with the entire economic package including the excessive deficit procedures, also initiated against Italy. The services of the EU executive embedded it in the more substantial chapter on the fiscal situation, and here, the pressure is back on the government to change course. In saying that there are “significant losses” to the tricolour exchequer in relation to concessions, the Commission says that a favourable price is, in fact, being charged, harming competition and public finances.

From Brussels comes a policy warning somewhere between a new warning and, once more, a reminder. On Italy hangs the decision to be taken by the European Commission on beach concessions. So far, the fine has only been postponed for political-electoral convenience, and it may be held in abeyance for a while longer, but eventually, the response will come. Italy is asked to work to avoid an open confrontation when the time comes.

Brussels cannot do more than this. More time is being given than might have been expected. A “gift” to Giorgia Meloni and her government, to which more help seems objectively difficult. There are two judgments of the EU Court of Justice (issued respectively on July 14, 2016 and April 20, 2023) that must be implemented, and an infringement procedure. Too much to continue to turn a blind eye.

Just as it is difficult to turn a blind eye to the flat tax so dear to the Lega component of the government. The Commission’s technical paper puts it in black and white that “the extension of flat-rate tax regimes, including for the self-employed, worsens horizontal equity and the efficiency of the tax system by reducing redistribution, favouring specific categories of taxpayers, and disincentivizing business growth.” Another warning. This, too, as in the case of beach concessions, is not new.