4th European Conference on Tourism - CEEP requests flexibility in the applications of PPP and concession rules to encourage sustainable tourism

At the 4th European Conference on Tourism held in Castiglio Del lago and arranged by the CEEP Sustainable Tourism Platform, several initiatives and proposals were launched by actors from European local authorities and local enterprises – public, private or with mixed capital – representatives from the European institutions, and researchers.

The objective was to try to find solutions on how the European Union can strengthen the efforts from the responsible bodies and actors at local and regional level to boost a European sustainable tourism. It succeeded in creating synergies and fruitful co-operation between private and public actors, with special focus on accessibility to cultural heritage and nature parks.

The conference was enriched by presentations of good practices of public-private partnerships: participants could virtually travel from Lapponia in the north of Sweden, to successful transformations of former industrial mine areas in Germany and Austria into new sustainable tourist places, to the many villages in Italy and France. The variety of situations and needs showed once again the necessity of a strict respect of the subsidiarity principle: the most appropriate level to manage tourist areas is the local or possibly the regional level, with the indispensable right of local authorities to self-governing.

The recently appointed President of the CEEP Sustainable Tourism Platform, Ms Dorothée Da Silva, Vice-Mayor of Lille, concluded the discussions, underlying that “It is essential that a flexible application of internal market and competition rules facilitate and encourage local public enterprises and authorities to create fruitful private public partnerships, institutional as well as in projects, and eliminate unpractical or dogmatic hinders.”This statement was strongly supported by Mr Antonio Centi, President of ANCI Delegated for Tourism (Italy) who related it to the necessity to preserve the cultural and natural heritage.

A comprehensive Declaration of this meeting will be available soon.

For more information contact:

Bengt HEDENSTRÖM, Senior adviser of CEEP tel: +32 (0) 2 219 27 98