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Italians heading for the beach in the coming weeks could face disruptions as sunbed businesses threaten to go on strike after being forced to give up their lucrative concessions.
Two of the sector’s business associations have said they plan to close their premises and the rented-out umbrellas for between 2 and 4 hours on several days in August to ratchet up the pressure on the government of Giorgia Meloni.
“We want the cries of pain arising from Italian beaches to be heard,” Antonio Capacchione, the president of the Italian Union of Beach Entrepreneurs, told the Financial Times. “People trusted the laws of the state that said ‘invest all you want’, and are now faced with a government that promised everything and is doing nothing.’’
For years, pressure from Brussels has been mounting on Italy to revoke its 30,000 beach management concessions — granted decades ago for a mere pittance — and to reallocate them through a competitive bidding process.
However, the owners of the concessions — which range from shacks with loungers and umbrellas to high-end restaurants and hotels — represent an influential political constituency fiercely resisting competition.
The European Commission launched infringement procedures against Italy in 2020, after the government led at the time by the populist Five Star Movement passed a law extending the concessions until 2033.
In an effort to resolve the dispute, the subsequent government, led by Mario Draghi, agreed to terminate all existing concessions, and hold auctions for new ones at the end of 2023. But his government collapsed before he could carry out the reforms.
Once in office, Meloni extended the validity of the existing concessions until the end of 2024.
Her government also mapped out Italy’s 7,900 kilometres of coastline in an attempt to demonstrate to Brussels that there were plenty of free beaches and that it was not necessary to cancel existing concessions. The commission rejected Rome’s claim and urged Meloni’s government to press ahead with the promised reform.
Italian municipalities — which historically issued concessions — are each preparing their own fresh tenders as well as drafting compensation policies for entrepreneurs set to lose longtime concessions.
But beach entrepreneurs are demanding that Meloni adopt a national policy guaranteeing the equivalent of at least two years of their annual turnover as compensation for their lost businesses.
“It’s the Wild West on Italian beaches in the absence of a national rule,” Capacchione said. “It’s the bare minimum. We require fairness. It is morally acceptable for someone to take possession for free of the [a business] built through the sacrifices of an entrepreneur who did not sleep at night?”