THE LAWSUIT DEFENDING THE INTERNATIONAL FREE PORT OF TRIESTE AND THE CITIZENS OF THE FREE TERRITORY OF TRIESTE
Trieste, 28 January 2020. – The lawsuit initiated by the I.P.R. F.T.T. before the Court of Trieste, of the Free Territory of Trieste, on 6 December 2019 is a fundamental one. It is the action for the demonstration of the laws in force that establish the international Free Port of Trieste (art. 34 of Annex VI the Treaty of Peace of 10 February 1947) and provide for its management (Annex VIII of the Treaty of Peace of 10 February 1947).
It is the third civil lawsuit initiated by the I.P.R. F.T.T. after the one for the demonstration of the correct tax system and separate State budget of the present-day Free Territory of Trieste, now before the Court of second instance (No. 139/17, LINK), and the lawsuit for the demonstration of the inapplicability of the Value Added Tax – VAT (IVA) of the Italian State in Trieste (No. 4277/18), pending before the Court of first instance and still open to the intervention of citizens and enterprises.
In the new lawsuit, the I.P.R. F.T.T. has summoned before Court the Italian Government (President of the Council of Ministers), the Office of the Commissioner of the Government in Region Friuli Venezia Giulia (Commissariato del Governo nella Regione Friuli Venezia Giulia) represented by the Commissioner pro tempore, the Trieste Prefect Office (Prefettura di Trieste) represented by the Italian Prefetto (Prefect) pro tempore, the Italian Ministry of Infrastructures and Transport (represented by the Italian Minister pro tempore), the Trieste Port Authority (represented by its President or Commissioner pro tempore), the Italian Ministry of Economy and Finance (represented by the Italian Minister pro tempore), the Italian State Property Agency (Agenzia del Demanio), represented by the Director pro tempore, Italian Region Friuli Venezia Giulia (represented by the President pro tempore), and the Municipality of Trieste (represented by the Mayor or Commissioner pro tempore).
The Court of Trieste is requested to ascertain the legal force of the laws of the Italian Republic that enforce and implement, with a rank superior to that of all other Italian laws, the Treaty of Peace of 10 February 1947, as well as the obligations established under the Memorandum of Understanding signed in London on 5 October 1954, with which the Governments of the United States of America and of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, for their role of primary administering Governments on behalf of the UN Security Council, have sub-entrusted the temporary civil administration of the present-day Free Territory of Trieste to the Italian Government (LINK).
Indeed, by virtue of those legal instruments, the international Free Port of Trieste is a State Corporation of the Free Territory of Trieste: for this reason, lawsuit No.5209/2019 requests that all Italian laws that conflict with that legal status be ruled inapplicable and unenforceable.
Among the Italian laws that conflict with those for the ratification and enforcement of the 1947 Treaty of Peace and with the sub-mandate of temporary civil administration over the present-day Free Territory of Trieste there are, in particular:
- the 2014 provisions envisioning the removal of the Northern Free Port from State property to allow a massive building speculations;
- laws establishing discriminatory port surcharges at the expenses of Trieste;
- excise duties on fuels, combustibles (including gas), and on electricity used or produced within the international Free Port and in the rest of the Free Territory of Trieste, or exported from it,
- laws that allow to levy the local taxes on real estates within the Free Port, finally, the provisions that assign the management of the free zones of the Free Port of Trieste to the Port System Authority of the Eastern Adriatic Sea (Autorità Portuale di Sistema del Mare Adriatico Orientale) instead of assigning it to the rightful Director of the Free Port (who cannot be a citizen of Italy or of the States of former Yugoslavia).
Civil lawsuit No. 5209/2019 does also regard the illegitimate Cooperation agreement between the Port System Authority of the Eastern Adriatic Sea – Ports of Trieste and Monfalcone that constitutes not only a breach of the legal order of the Free Territory of Trieste, but also a breach of Italian legislation on the matter, as well as constituting an economic and strategic danger for the whole Euro-Atlantic area: LINK
Legal action No. 5209/2019 is to be open to the adhesion of citizens and of enterprises from Trieste and from all other States, because they have the right to use the only international Free Port in the world: that of the Free Territory of Trieste.
Right now, citizens and enterprises can join civil lawsuit No. 4277/18 regarding the unenforceability of the Italian V.A.T. in Trieste. The Free Trieste Movement provides further information about the lawsuits at its office, in piazza della Borsa 7.
Translated from blog “Environment and Legality” by Roberto Giurastante