Possible privatization of beaches changes budget management and municipalities need to adapt to the rules

The Constitutional Amendment Proposal (PEC 03/2022) can bring changes in budget management and public security, as it has a potential impact that can include improvements in efficiency and transparency in implementation and coordination between levels of government. This is what the economist at the Regional Economic Council (Corecon DF), Guidi Nunes, explains. The proposal addresses the possible privatization of beaches on the Brazilian coast.

“The challenge is to know the capacity of the municipalities on the coastal strip to regulate and manage efficiently and pass all this legislation via PEC 03/2022 to these municipalities”, he explains.

PEC 03/2022 (PEC), which deals with the transfer of ownership of coastal land from the Union to states, municipalities and possibly private owners, is an issue that was discussed again in the last week of May, after a hearing was held public in the Constitution and Justice Committee (CCJ) of the Federal Senate.

Economy

Guidi assesses that the Proposed Amendment to the Constitution has implications for the Brazilian economy, especially for those on the coast. “The economic impact concerns the risk of increasing the concentration of income and wealth with the likely privatization of beaches”, he comments.

The economist assesses that the Brazilian Constitution is clear in establishing that beaches are public goods for common use by the people, guaranteeing free access, protecting the coastal environment and any attempt to restrict public access or use of beaches, in a way that contrary to this principle, it is considered unconstitutional.

PEC 03/2022

Reuber Brandão, biologist, clarifies that the PEC discussed does not aim to privatize beaches, but rather to change the way in which land belonging to Navy areas is negotiated, as they are coastal areas where negotiations take place between public authorities and private entities to allow the temporary use of these areas, without a definitive transfer of ownership.

“What this PEC foresees is precisely that these areas would be directly acquired by private entities, but not the beach itself. What complicates access to the beach is because, as a result, these are private areas that cannot be invaded, so access to the beach is compromised”, he explains.

The biologist explains that beaches are dynamic environments that require autonomous access not only to guarantee collective use by the population, as established by Federal Law No. 7,661/1988, but also to enable public authorities to effectively and safely manage these areas. vital and constantly changing.

“If you lose access, control, autonomy of actions along the beach in coastal areas, you greatly limit the ability of the community to use this area as a collective good, but also the public power to make necessary interventions to management, control, protection of these areas that play an extremely important role”, he adds.

Changes

If approved, the PEC will allow the transfer of marine land, located within 33 meters of the 1831 tide line and currently under Union management, to states, municipalities and private occupants.

States and municipalities will be able to acquire land with public buildings free of charge, while private individuals will need to pay to obtain title, as long as they are registered with the Union’s heritage management body until the publication of the amendment, or occupants have not been registered for at least five years.

The proposal also eliminates the Union’s charging of the laudêmio in transfers of domain, maintaining with the Union the areas of federal public use, not occupied or environmental.