The first edition of Boat Days on Board – Blu Expo was held today in Gaeta, an event dedicated to discussion between institutions, businesses, and maritime operators, with a focus on the blue economy, port activities, innovation, and the development of leisure boating. The event is promoted by Consormare del Golfo with the support of the Lazio Region, the Frosinone Latina Chamber of Commerce, the Province of Latina, and the City of Gaeta, and has been confirmed as an important opportunity for institutional dialogue on the future of Lazio's coastal territories. Anci Lazio participated in the event with Secretary General Luca Masi and President Daniele Sinibaldi, confirming its commitment to representing the needs of the municipalities in the Lazio coastal strip in institutional forums concerning the governance of the sea and maritime resources.
The President of ANCI Lazio, Daniele Sinibaldi He opened the proceedings by highlighting the strategic value of the Blue Economy for the region's productive and institutional fabric. The sea economy – which includes fishing, aquaculture, nautical tourism, ports, and marine energy – represents a growing sector, with potential that is still largely untapped in the municipalities along the Lazio coast. Sinibaldi thanked the Lazio Region for promoting and supporting the initiative, pointing out how events like Boat Days on Board are fundamental for creating the conditions for structured dialogue between the different institutional levels.
The President therefore reiterated the role Anci Lazio intends to play as a liaison between coastal municipalities and higher-level institutions. In particular, he expressed the desire to build an operational synergy with the Region to support the territories in their dialogue with the competent Ministries and with the maritime State property, areas in which individual municipalities often operate in isolation, with limited technical and administrative resources. A shared management, on the other hand, allows them to present themselves with greater strength and coherence in national decision-making bodies.
On the regional resources front, Sinibaldi emphasised that the availability of funds – European, national, and regional – is not sufficient in itself if not accompanied by adequate project planning capacity. The key to spending available resources effectively is large-scale planning: an approach that transcends municipal boundaries and builds coherent interventions on a broader territorial scale, capable of generating lasting impacts and effectively responding to the development needs of coastal municipalities.
The Secretary-General, Luca Masi He/She/They played the role of moderator for the day together with Doctor Maria Grazia Iadarola, leading the works with an approach focused on the concrete needs of local authorities. At the heart of his speech was the need to build a unified and homogeneous programming for coastal Municipalities, capable of overcoming the fragmentation that characterises the management of coastlines and maritime resources today.
A central theme is that of maritime state property concessions. Anci has long been engaged in constructive dialogue with the Government, awaiting national guidelines on the matter. Coastal municipalities are waiting for this process to be able to plan their economic development related to the sea in an orderly and certain manner. The production of these guidelines is crucial to enable local authorities to operate with clear rules, while at the same time ensuring the protection of state property and the enhancement of businesses in the sector. On this front, Anci is carrying out work of coordination and active representation, with the aim of conveying the specific needs of the territories to national institutions.
The discussion on PNRR funds is also important, as their resources, to produce lasting effects, must be accompanied by a system vision that integrates the various interventions into a coherent territorial strategy projected beyond the Plan's deadline.
In this context, Anci Lazio is working on defining a cities' agenda: a shared programming tool among Municipalities that aims to identify common priorities, build synergies between bodies, and promote structured, long-term project development. The agenda intends to move beyond an emergency-driven or single-tender approach and instead foster an organic capacity to respond to regional challenges, from coastal management to energy transition, from sustainable mobility to the enhancement of cultural and environmental heritage. This is a participatory process that involves Municipalities in a co-design journey, in line with European guidelines on territorial cohesion and the guiding principles of local development policies promoted by Anci nationally.
Anci Lazio's participation in Boat Days on Board is part of a broader commitment to the specificities of coastal municipalities, which represent a significant portion of the regional territory and face distinct challenges: from the sustainable management of the coastline to the valorisation of sea-related economies, from the protection of marine ecosystems to the need for modern and competitive port infrastructure.
Anci Lazio's objective is to consolidate a permanent forum for discussion that involves Municipalities, the Region, the Government, and economic operators, so that maritime policies are built from the ground up, with the full participation of local authorities who manage the relationship between communities and the coastal territory on a daily basis.