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Italy and the European Union have come to an agreement over some valuable property after many years of negotiations. Until now, Italy has leased about half of its beachfront to small operators who run private clubs, or lidos. This month, the country agreed, reluctantly, to put those leases up for competitive bidding beginning in 2027. Willem Marx explains from Sicily, it'll be a big break from tradition.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
WILLEM MARX: Music pours out of several speakers at a beach club called Lido Otello...
(SOUNDBITE OF ESPRESSO SHOT PULL)
MARX: ...From the morning espressos...
(SOUNDBITE OF COCKTAIL SHAKER)
MARX: ...Through to the evening aperitivi that flow from the bar as roasted octopus or spaghetti alle vongole out of the kitchen.
(SOUNDBITE OF WAVES CRASHING)
MARX: Nearby, on the golden sand beach of southern Sicily's Santa Maria del Focallo beach, the gentle waves lap close to long spaced lines of loungers. In the summer high season, an umbrella and two deck chairs here cost just over $30 a day. Customers are seasonal but typically very loyal, says co-owner Enrico Ludicelli.
ENRICO LUDICELLI: Families, young people, old people, everyone is welcome in our beach club because everyone can find a service that's - it's good for him.
MARX: Every year, the beach club sector in Italy generates billions of dollars, but operators only pay a fraction of that to local governments to run the lidos on what are publicly owned beaches. Italy's national government has long sanctioned this often lucrative business model, but it's now under threat from a European Union directive designed to make the beach club marketplace more competitive and transparent. Dr. Eleanora Poli at the Center for European Policy think tank says the many families who've historically run the lidos, often over generations, expect the state to shield them from market forces.
ELEONORA POLI: The idea that competition is fine, but, you know, the state should intervene to protect on the one hand and also to tolerate actions that are not in line with the rules, as long as they provides for citizens.
MARX: Small operators fear that opening up this tender process along Italy's almost 5,000 miles of coastline could lead to a loss of local traditions. Maurizio Rustignoli is president of a business association for beach concession owners.
MAURIZIO RUSTIGNOLI: (Speaking Italian).
MARX: "It is the uniqueness of each region that makes the Italian seaside tourism office special," he says. "If we lose this and we create a product in the hands of multinationals or centralized management, we lose everything."
This is only the latest bat to see bureaucrats in Brussels butt heads with Italian business traditions. Foreign companies could become the main beneficiaries, with beachgoers facing higher costs, says Deborah Bergamini, a senior lawmaker in the Forza Italia party that's part of the current government.
DEBORAH BERGAMINI: Huge investors will raise the price, maybe use these concessions in a different way, reduce the number of umbrellas and specific services available in order to invest on others. And this, of course, will provoke a general difficulty for less-rich people to get in these beautiful places.
MARX: But the fact that some beaches right now already require a payment to enter rankle some Italians, including members of the campaign group Mare Libero, or Free Sea, where Fabrizio Raso is the coordinator for Sicily.
FABRIZIO RASO: (Speaking Italian).
MARX: "The beaches are given to private individuals to manage them, to do business," he says. "Consequently, ordinary Italians who ultimately own this property, i.e. beaches, have to pay to access something that they already own." In a country where governments can come and go almost as often as the seasons change, much may depend on whether the current one sinks or swims strongly against the European tide of economic liberalization.
For NPR News, I'm Willem Marx in Santa Maria del Focallo, Sicily, Italy. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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