Isola delle Correnti, at Scialai beach the Cga can wait: the hearing postponed to "wait for" the Court of Review

"The Administrative Justice Council for the Sicilian Region confirms precautionary decree no. 285/26, reiterates the effectiveness of the precautionary measures provided therein, and postpones to the chamber hearing on October 14". The hope of the company Greco Costruzioni & Servizi srl to be able to rebuild the Scialai beach at Isola delle Correnti, in Portopalo di Capo Passero (in the province of Syracuse), next summer hangs on this sentence, written in an ordinance published on September 4 and obscure for those who have not followed the evolution of the matter. Because yes, the Cga postpones any evaluation to a subsequent hearing, but - in the meantime - confirms what it had already decided urgently on July 31, 2026. That is: the revocation of the maritime state concession, decided by the Environment Department of the Sicilian Region on April 23, 2026, must be suspended. Translated: the Region's decision to remove from the company any right to set up the beach on the shore ceases to have effect. The administrative procedure and the criminal procedure, however, move on two parallel tracks that, at this stage, occasionally come closer only to drift apart again. And the seizure - by virtue of which Greco Costruzioni & Servizi has remained blocked all summer - remains in place, awaiting the decision of the Review Court (to which the company has appealed). This is what, "in this peculiar context," the Cga is also waiting for, now that summer is over. In mid-September, the summer case seems less pressing. When the police arrived to seal the wooden structure of the kiosk on the night of August 1-2, the case once again filled the pages of the newspapers. "Again" because the same had happened during the days of mid-August 2025 when, following a report from the municipal police of Portopalo, the prosecutor's office of Syracuse had opened a file that later led to the first seizure of the Scialai area. According to the prosecution, "the presence of the establishment and the works functional to it - reads the seizure from a year ago - alters the environmental landscape balance protected by the constraint" and "the continuation of tourist and recreational activities [...] concretely harms the vegetation and natural habitat." Over the months, the decision is confirmed first by the court of review and subsequently also by the Supreme Court. In the review phase, within a technical report, it is also stated that "in light of a permitted area of 1000 square meters, an establishment of 3,225 square meters was built, thus with 2,225 square meters of excess". Also for these reasons, the offices of the Region decide to revoke the concession. When the regional concession is annulled, the reasons for keeping the area sealed also fall away: a beach could no longer be established, since the authorization deemed incorrect in the premise was no longer valid. The short circuit occurs here: the company of Simone Greco appeals against the regional measure, the Administrative Court rejects it deeming it legitimate. The Council of State, however, without intervening on the merits, decides with a monocratic urgent decree signed by President Ermanno de Francisco that the public reasons must be defended more than the private ones: citizens, that is, must be able to benefit from "the services to assist bathing", says the judge. With that decree in hand, the Greco company returns to the beach to begin installing the bar kiosk. For the prosecutor's office of Syracuse, however, that assembly is proof of the renewed need to impose real precautionary measures to protect an environmental area under protection. Hence the new seals and the beginning of this story that now waits with bated breath for other judges to express themselves.