The Island Council is seeking changes to the beach bar concession terms and is challenging the Balearic government’s interpretation of coastal regulations, as a separate procedure to potentially revoke the concession remains ongoing.
Formentera’s Island Council (Consell de Formentera) has approved a new set of legal arguments submitted to the Balearic government in an effort to remove the requirement for the island’s eight beach bars to be dismantled every winter. The council is calling for changes to the administrative concession, which currently requires the structures to be removed for one month, between 15 January and 15 February. It argues that allowing them to remain in place throughout the year would be legally possible and more environmentally beneficial.
The council’s governing board approved the submissions at a meeting on 15 September, two days before the deadline set by the Directorate-General for Coasts and Littoral. The move marks another development in a dispute that began in 2024 and has since escalated with the opening of proceedings that could result in the concession being declared lapsed. The Balearic government launched that procedure in January 2026 over alleged breaches of the concession conditions.
How the dispute over Formentera’s beach bars began
The dispute dates back to the concession granted to the Island Council by the coastal authorities in April 2023. The agreement runs for ten years, with the possibility of a five-year extension, while the operating contracts cover the 2023–2028 seasons.
According to the current operators, the requirement to dismantle the beach bars for one month each winter was not included in the original tender documents. The successful bidders have refused to dismantle their establishments for two consecutive years, with one exception: a beach bar operator who removed the structure during the most recent winter.
According to the Island Council’s legal report, the council first asked the Balearic government to amend the concession on 4 June 2024. On 14 January 2025, it requested urgent measures to prevent the bars from having to be removed. The coastal authorities rejected that request, arguing that changing the concession would require a complex administrative process and that the existing conditions had to be respected until a decision was reached.
In March 2025, the council opened disciplinary proceedings against all eight operators for failing to dismantle their establishments, proposing fines of €1,500.01 per beach bar.
In January 2026, only one operator complied with the removal requirement: Bartolo, on Migjorn beach. Its operator is the only one who also held a contract under the previous concession.
The threat of concession cancellation
The dispute intensified after the Balearic government rejected the council’s request to amend the concession on 29 December 2025. On 12 January 2026, it launched proceedings to declare the concession lapsed over alleged material breaches of its conditions.
The decision followed a report from the coastal authorities dated 12 November 2025, which called for action “without further delay”.
The alleged irregularities included concerns that only three of the eight beach bars appeared to be dismantlable, as well as issues involving distances between structures, the public and free access to toilets, and the final documentation for the completed works.
On 2 February 2026, the Island Council submitted objections to the potential cancellation. It challenged the regional government’s assessment and maintained that all eight establishments could be dismantled without demolition, even if the process would be complicated.
The council has repeated that argument in its latest submissions.
Separately, on 27 February 2026, the council appealed against the rejection of its request to amend the concession. The Balearic government upheld that appeal in a resolution notified on 9 June 2026, overturning the rejection on the grounds that it was not legally justified and ordering the administrative proceedings to be reopened so the request could be examined on its merits.
However, the ruling did not authorise the beach bars to remain in place all year.
On 24 August 2026, the head of the Concessions Service issued a new report opposing the removal of the annual dismantling requirement. The Island Council subsequently requested a full copy of the administrative file and five additional days to submit its arguments, extending the deadline to 17 September.
Legal and environmental arguments against annual dismantling
In its latest submissions, the Island Council challenges the Balearic government’s interpretation of Spain’s General Coastal Regulations.
The council’s legal advisers argue that the Coastal Law requires the installations to be dismantlable but does not explicitly require them to be removed every year. In their interpretation, the annual removal requirement was introduced by the 2014 regulations and applies to facilities operating under temporary authorisations. They argue that it should not automatically be extended to establishments operating under a concession.
This is the Island Council’s legal interpretation, which the Balearic government disputes.
The council also points out that the beach bars remained in place during the winter months from 2008 onwards, when off-season services were authorised, and says there is no record of the council being sanctioned for that practice.
It has also submitted a study by environmental consultancy Podarcis, which argues that assembling and dismantling the structures every year generates more waste and emissions, compacts the sand, damages dunes and accelerates the deterioration of materials compared with leaving the structures in place until the concession ends.
The council maintains that keeping the structures installed throughout the year would not necessarily mean the businesses had to operate year-round, as seasonal closure periods could still be introduced.
Two decisions still pending
Several former concession holders have announced plans to take legal action against the Balearic government over what they describe as “administrative inaction”. They allege that the authorities have failed to respond to their own request for a temporary suspension while the proceedings that could lead to the concession’s cancellation continue.
The procedure has an indicative maximum period of 18 months for a decision to be made and notified. Counting from 12 January 2026, the deadline would fall on 12 July 2027, subject to any suspensions and the applicable legal framework.
The Balearic government therefore faces two separate decisions: whether to remove the annual dismantling requirement and whether to terminate the concession.
The two issues are related but not interchangeable. Even if the annual removal requirement were amended for the future, that would not automatically cancel any alleged past breaches or resolve the other issues being investigated by the coastal authorities.