Every summer the same story. Italians return to the sea and together with the umbrellas a question re-emerges that seemed to have been resolved years ago: so what happened to this famous liberalization of the beaches? Between extensions, missing decrees, TAR rulings, interventions by the Council of State and negotiations with Brussels, we managed to transform a 2006 European directive into a transition which, in the best case scenario, will be completed more than twenty years later. And in the meantime some Municipalities have decided not to wait for Rome.
In Bacoli 81% of free beaches
The most obvious case is that of Bacoli, in the province of Naples, which has decided to redesign how much coastline to be allocated to private individuals, at the same time preparing a competitive system to assign what will remain under concession. Here the share of free or free equipped beaches will increase from 15 to 81 percent of the coastline. This is provided for by the new maritime state property regulation – approved on 22 July by the city council – which prevents the same operator from holding more than one concession, eliminates the possibility of automatically transferring the title through subcontracting and provides for forfeiture for those who employ illegal workers.
The new concessions in Jesolo
Then there is Jesolo, where the demonstration that the races are physically possible is even more evident. The Municipality redesigned the beach by dividing it into 16 minimum management units and in January 2026 the last phase of the disputes relating to the assignment of 15 of the 16 units that had expired also ended.
And similar cases are starting to multiply. Sarzana started the procedures for twelve concessions in Marinella after the intervention of the administrative justice; in other places the Antitrust and the TAR intervened against general extensions.
But then what does the law provide today?
Here the paradox begins. In 2024, the Meloni government, with the infringement-saving decree, established that the existing concessions can continue to be effective until 30 September 2027. However, the Municipalities must start the new award procedures by 30 June 2027. Only in the presence of objective reasons – for example a dispute or problems in carrying out the procedure – the deadline can be further postponed, with a reasoned provision, but in any case no later than 31 March 2028.
The new concessions can last from a minimum of five to a maximum of twenty years, depending on the investments needed and the time needed to amortise them. The tenders must evaluate not only the economic offer, but also the quality of services, accessibility for people with disabilities, environmental protection, employment, investments and professional experience.
The mockery of beach concessions: the State collects much less than expected from the new tenders
In practice, no private individual should be able to consider a certain portion of beach as a property to be passed down from generation to generation without periodically dealing with other competitors. The automatic and generalized renewal of old concessions cannot be the definitive model.
The notice that was supposed to arrive in thirty days
The national standard tender also made things more complicated. On 11 March 2026, the government approved a decree which required the Ministry of Infrastructure to submit to the Unified Conference, within thirty days, a standard tender scheme intended to help Municipalities use homogeneous criteria throughout Italy. Those thirty days passed and only on 13 July did the ministry led by Matteo Salvini still announce that it had brought together the trade associations to discuss the scheme.
In practice, the Municipalities should carry out the tenders as imposed by the judges, but the State has not yet prepared all the tools it should have provided to the local authorities.
And the decree on compensation also got lost along the way
That’s not the only delay. The 2024 legislation provides for compensation for the outgoing concessionaire in the presence of investments that have not yet been amortized and a quota necessary to guarantee a fair return on the investments of the last five years. The ministerial decree with the calculation criteria should have been adopted by 31 March 2025.
In July 2025 the Council of State expressed a detailed opinion on the scheme prepared by the government. And again in May 2026 Palazzo Spada had to remind that the failure to issue the decree cannot be used as a reason for not calling for tenders.
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