Administrative procedure

Approaching the summer season, the destiny of beach resorts and establishments is a subject of notable interest, because it also raises unresolved questions from the point of view of the relationship, often full of contradictions, between national administrative law and the principles of European Union law. Therefore, clear rules need to be defined in order to allow the summer season to take place safely both for operators and tourists. It is also of paramount importance to overcome the inertia of the legislator with regard to the reform of this sector, concerning overall the expiry of ongoing concessions on the basis of the principles of public evidence established by the EU Treaties and by the “Services Directive” 123/2006/CE (which includes in its scope of applications maritime, lake and river concessions). In this sense, the emergency could be the right moment to adopt measures that take into account each specific situation as to protect the legitimate expectations of the concession holders (in any case in compliance with what has already been affirmed by the EU Court following a preliminary ruling in joined cases C-458/14 e C-67/15, Promoimpresa e sig. Melis. In addition this allows to make further reflections on "Emergency Administration" on the bases of the provisions suggested by the technical committees in order to contain contagion from Covid19 and concerning also the seaside businesses.  Decisions required to deal with the crisis must certainly be inspired by the precautionary principle, but they must also respect the principle of proportionality as to limit unsuitable effects on other emerging interests, including the impact on the stability of the EU single market (of services).

This paper deals with the suitability of the generalized civic access to guarantee administrative transparency during the COVID 19 health emergency, considering also the Codacons’ civic access request related to COVID 19 health emergency data.

With the judgment of 15 April 2020, 1 BvR 828/20, the German Federal Constitutional Court ruled that the municipal administration of the town of Giessen must re-evaluate the request of authorization to hold a demonstration in a public place, presented by a German citizen and already rejected by the same administration, in light of the considerations on the exercise of administrative discretion carried out by the Court itself. According to the Constitutional Judge, in cases such as this, administrative discretion must in fact be exercised primarily in order to protect rights which, otherwise, an administrative provision could compress to the point of making it impossible to exercise.

The contribution analyzes the discipline on the suspension of procedural terms provided for by the "Cura Italia" decree, highlighting some of its critical aspects.