WRITTEN QUESTION TO THE ITALIAN GOVERNMENT
SOURCE: LINK
Links: care of Free Trieste, for the sake of clarity and context.
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Question to the President of the Council of Ministers and to the Minister of Foreign Affairs.
Submit by Aris Prodani (M5S Parliamentarian).
CHAMBER OF DEPUTIES ACT
WRITTEN QUESTION 4/02011
PRODANI. — To the President of the Council of Ministers and to the Minister of Foreign Affairs. — For information – having considered that:
the Movimento Trieste Libera – Gibanje Svobododni Trst – Free Trieste Movement, established in 2011, claims for Trieste and the nearby municipalities the legal status of the Territorio libero di Trieste – Free Territory of Trieste – Svobodno Tržaško ozemlje (TLT-FTT-STO);
that is a subject of international law, fully established and regulated as independent Sovereign State with popular sovereignty, UN Member de jure, and with the guarantees provided with the 1947 Treaty of Peace between the Allied and Associated Powers on the one side, and Italy on the other side, in force since 15 September 1947;
at its Annex VIII, that Treaty does also regulate with specific provision the special status of Trieste’s Free Port;
the FTT’s legal order establishes a Provisional Regime of Government (Annex VII) until the completion of the Permanent Government (Annex VI);
until 1954, a dedicated Allied Military Government acted as the FTT’s provisional Government in the form of a special trusteeship mandate. In 1954 this was converted into a civil administration entrusted to the Italian Government (not to the State) under the Memorandum of Understanding of London, signed between the Governments handling over and receiving the administration;
at the moment, following the 1975 bilateral Italian-Yugoslav treaty of Osimo, the question of the Free Territory of Trieste is removed from the UN Security Council’s agenda, however, the UN confirmed in a 1983 letter that it can be included in that agenda again;
the Free Trieste movement argues that the Italian Government is unfaithful in exercising its international trusteeship mandate, resulting in breaches of rights and economic damages at the expenses of the local people, and therefore advocates for domestic and international remedies.
The Movement’s theses are consolidated in a specific «Urgent complaint and notice of default» dated June 18th, 2013, notified to both Italian and international competent authorities;
in recent months, the FTM intensified its initiative supporting the thesis of the lack of Italian sovereignty over Trieste, encouraging the people to civil disobedience;
for instance, the Movement invited Trieste’s electors to abstain from voting at the February general election – suggesting instead the presentation at the polling station of a declaration of the refusal to vote – and this was picked up by several national newspapers (including Huffington Post Italia, on February 23rd, 2013). This initiative took place again on the occasion of the April 2013 regional election;
furthermore, many supporters of the FTM initiated a campaign of tax disobedience, questioning the legitimacy of Italian taxation and of tax collection company Equitalia;
the Legal Office of the Tax Revenue Agency has rejected the many arguments on jurisdiction, and punished the appellants to pay court fees and to reparations for damages due to delaying the payment;
this behavior is identical to that of the Trieste Civil Court. On 3 September 2013, that rejected with an ordinance the appeal of a member of the Movement, stating that Equitalia has full authority to seize an immovable asset. The Court’s ordinance contains highlights about the validity of the international agreements questioned by the FTM, yet, this doesn’t settle the question of their interpretation;
in August 2012, EU bodies took an interest in claims regarding the territory of Trieste, which were submit by both European parliamentarian Mara Bizzotto (Lega Nord) and by the FTM itself.
In particular, the representative of Lega Nord presented a question regarding the Free Port of Trieste. The European Commissioner for Economy, Lithuanian Algirdas Šemeta, confirmed the validity of Annex VIII of the 1947 Peace Treaty, which defines the management of the Trieste Free Port;
the EU’s The Directorate-General for Justice, addressed by the Movement due to alleged violations of the rights of citizens of the FTT committed by the Italian judiciary, which allegedly acts outside its jurisdiction, answered that the European Commission has no authority to intervene, because Trieste’s legal status falls outside the scope of Community Law;
on September 11th, 2013, the Court of Trieste discussed a tax objection presented by Roberto Giurastante, the Movement’s leader. The State’s lawyer, Marco Meloni, lodged a response in the name and on behalf of the Ministry of Justice.
After claiming that not only the FTT doesn’t exist «and has never existed», the document addressed the question of the UN’s emblem, which appears near the Movement’s name.
In particular, it says:
«The use, by a local association, of the flag and of the emblem of the United Nations Organization, certainly not authorized and therefore illicit, is not endorsed or supported by the competent bodies, which on the contrary have pretty much immediately considered, on their side, of envisioned free Territory’s impracticability»;
Meloni observed that «the people of Trieste, despite being deprived of the possibility to express their opinion in the 1946 elected Constituent Assembly, has expressed itself way before the birth»;
to date, Italian national authorities have not taken a univocal and organic position on this question, while a reconstruction of international law was only drafted by the Regional administrative Court (TAR) for Friuli Venezia Giulia in its judgment No. 76/2013, which is about an appeal on the matter of concessions of State-owned area that belong to Trieste’s old port, and are, as such, subject to the Free Port legal regime;
An attempt to «officialize» the event came from Triestine City Councilor Paolo Rovis (Pdl) who, in an agenda, called for the City Council to hold a discussion about the FTT, inviting «experts of law and institutional representatives who prove helpful to provide a better analysis of the question».
However, the agenda was rejected as inadmissible by vote. Out of 27 councilors, only 3 supported this political imitative – Rovis himself and both representatives of the Movimento 5 Stelle Paolo Menis and Stefano Patuanelli – arguing that it had nothing to do with the decision on budget in discuss –:
if the Italian Government is willing to clarify the aspects of international law regarding the free territory of Trieste – addressing the UN Security Council – to settle the pending questions on sovereignty, filling the void with a desirable answer by the Authorities, thus preventing the worsening of social and political tensions related to this matter. (4-02011)