Different infringement procedures against Italy, including that concerning the beach concessions, were at the centre of a meeting between government representatives and officials of the European Commission which was held today. The sectors and costs had already been discussed in June, when the government published the decree law 69/2023 to facilitate the closure of various infringement procedures, a process that can also lead to the condemnation to pay economic sanctions. Italy is not doing well: it occupies sixth place in terms of the number of infringements against it and has the sad record if we consider the procedures one step away from sanction. So far, the infringement procedures are cost Italy 800 million euros.
But how do they work?
The Commission is responsible for checking whether EU law is being respected and whether a country is not applying the rules correctly. When one of these two cases occurs, the Commission can launch a formal infringement procedure for failure to communicate (if the Member State does not communicate in time the measures to implement the directive) or for failure to apply (if it considers the legislation of the member state not in line with EU law). The actual procedure begins with a letter of formal notice with which the commission asks for more information. Sanctions for violations of EU law are imposed only after the second conviction by the European Court. If the response is not exhaustive, the commission can decide to send a reasoned opinion asking to comply with the regulatory shortcomings by a certain date. If the situation does not resolve itself, the commission starts an appeal to the European Court of Justice. If the court considers that the country in question has actually violated EU law, it then asks the national authorities to comply. If they do not comply, a second referral is triggered, with financial penalties.
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