Not just bathing establishments. There european services directive – better known as Bolkestein – holds hostage for more than ten years a significant portion of our economy, which employs almost 200,000 companies and 329,000 employees, including bathing establishments, commerce in public spaces and newspaper resale. Sectors that, in this long phase of uncertainty, saw the value of assets fall drastically, with a damage estimated at 4.5 billion euros. This is Confesercenti, which takes stock of the effects caused by Bolkestein on companies in our country, since its implementation until today.
(More than) a decade of uncertainty
There “Bolkestein Question” officially starts in December 12, 2006, with the final approval of the directive by the Parliament and the Council of the European Union. The objective of the norm is to promote the free movement of services and the elimination of barriers between different countries, but there are many criticisms that accompany the directive, approved only after numerous modifications with a text of "commitment". Bolkestein takes shape in Italy almost four years later, when our country transposes the directive with the legislative decree of March 26, 2010, n.59, establishing that, in cases where the number of authorizations available for a given activity of service is limited for reasons related to the scarcity of natural resources, the competent authorities apply a selection process among potential candidates. Basically, the concessions of the current owners must be subject to bidding. Since then, between agreements, appeals, opinions, judgments, extensions granted and (often) cancelled, the situation remains at an impasse to this day. The last law on bathing concessions: in 2018 they were extended until 2033, canceled by decision of the state council in November 2021. The same happened, several times, also for itinerant trade: the 2012 State-Regions agreement was denied by later measures, with the term of the concessions being extended first to 2015, then to 2018, then to 2020, 2021 and finally to 2022.
Application Sectors
The Bolkestein Directive applies to bath facilitiesfor the replacement and there public establishments in public areas and on newsstands selling newspapers and magazines. Three sectors that, in general, generated a turnover of around 10 billion euros, and whose operators – 80% families – suddenly found themselves in a situation of total uncertainty, even as regards short-term prospects.
traveling trade
In the climate of uncertainty generated by the implementation of Bolkestein, the business value in major markets is devalued between 75 and 90%. In many there are vacant parking spaces in which no operator wants to invest. According to our estimates, in 2010 the average value of an asset was 50,000 euros; now it barely reaches 10,000. Considering Italy's 8,000 markets, the aggregate loss is more than 3 billion of euros. In addition, from 2010 to the present, they more than 20,000 companies closed11% of the total, and around 28,000 workers were lost.
bath facilities
For the bath facilities A similar situation can be seen, in the face of, among other things, conspicuous investments. For 10 years, company sales in beach concessions are, in fact, at zero. The very few operations carried out give us back a drop in market cap around 50%with a global loss of more than 1 billion euros.
newsstands
For the newsstands two elements converged that originated the strong crisis: the first that unites them to the more general crisis of editorial and printed paper provoked by the advent of digital technology, the second linked again to the uncertainties created by the process triggered by the implementation of Bolkestein. The market crisis began around 2008, with a drop in vertical sales and the closure of many stores. Kiosks, in particular, they have declined by 61 percent over the last 15 years: today there are just over 7,000. Considering only the latter, 10 years ago we estimated a minimum average value for each activity of 100,000 euros, now down to 30,000. There general loss for the other operators is 500 million euros.
“Applied to the specific Italian reality, Bolkestein caused more than a decade of instability and uncertainty – explains Confesercenti -. In these sectors, eight out of ten companies are family businesses: tens of thousands of families, therefore, who suddenly found themselves facing the prospect of losing their jobs. Subjecting these family businesses to bankruptcy proceedings will not increase the country's competitiveness, but it will create an economic and social problem. More than anything else, business is weighed down by uncertainty, which in the Bolkestein decade held back investment and destroyed asset values. In recent years, he has become a monster: a Bolkestein bureaucrat, witnessing the failure of a short-sighted legislative activity that has never been able to face the problem with foresight and which, unfortunately, still persists. We need balanced and clear measures that restore the working conditions of the sectors”.