Il Corriere di Trieste

Trieste, 8.3.2018 – The Law Commission of the I.P.R. F.T.T. – International Provisional Representative of the Free Territory of Trieste has published an expertise that ultimately consolidates the legal and fiscal question of the present-day Free Territory of Trieste and of its international Free Port. The innovative study is published in English (LINK) and in Italian (LINK) on the website of the I.P.R. F.T.T., which does also retain the right to authorize its use in legal disputes.

The present-day Free Territory of Trieste is a sovereign State established with the 1947 Treaty of Peace with Italy, placed under the protection of the United Nations Security Council, under a special trusteeship mandate entrusted to the Governments of the United States and of the United Kingdom, which have sub-entrusted its temporary civil administration to the responsibility of the Italian Government. It borders with Italy since 1947 and, since 1992, also with Slovenia (LINK).

The international Free Port of Trieste is established as a State corporation of the Free Territory for the transit, warehousing, manipulation, and trade of the goods of all Countries, without discriminations. Switzerland, Czechia, Slovakia, Austria, and Hungary have also the right to use Trieste as the registered port and the home port of their ships and vessels.

During the Cold War and the following the dissolution of Yugoslavia, the administering Italian Governments have successfully spread the false theses claiming that the Free Territory of Trieste was never established, therefore, it either returned or remained under the previous Italian sovereignty (1920-1947) despite the Treaty of Peace, and also that the port of Trieste was just a peripheral port of the Italian State.

The provisional Italian administration used this political simulation to illegally enforce the legal system of the Italian State, as well as its huge taxes, to both the Territory of Trieste and to its international Free Port, thus causing serious harm to the citizens and enterprises of the Free Territory itself, but also to the States that are entitled with rights over its international Free Port, and their enterprises (LINK).

The I.P.R. F.T.T. Law Commission has already proved in a previous expertise, published in English (LINK) and in Italian (LINK) that the simulation of Italian sovereignty over che Free Territory of Trieste is forged using misquotes and misinterpretations of the pertinent instruments of international law and of the Italian legal system.

The new expertise completes the analysis of the deceit, proving that the Italian legal system recognizes and enforces, since 1947, all international obligations of the Italian Republic and of the Italian Government respect to the present-day Free Territory of Trieste, to other States, and to the United Nations, and also that those obligations prevail over all Italian domestic laws.

The I.P.R. F.T.T. has thus provided to citizens, enterprises, and to all States the ultimate evidences that, after the coming into force of the Treaty of Peace with Italy, on 15 September 1947, all claims of Italian sovereignty over the Free Territory of Trieste is a political simulation without legal bases, because it violates both international and Italian domestic law.

Also, this means that all acts with which Italian authorities outright claim or imply Italian sovereignty over the Free Territory of Trieste in order to subject it to the Italian legal order and taxation are made unenforceable also by an original and irremediable legal-logical contradiction: it is impossible enforcing a legal order by breaching it.

On those bases, the I.P.R. F.T.T. has summoned before the Court of Trieste the administering Italian Government, its Ministry of Economy and Finances, its Tax Agencies, and the Italian National Institute for Social Security – INPS, requesting the re-establishment of the correct legal and fiscal system of the administered Free Territory of Trieste and of its International Free Port (LINK).

The final hearing is to be held on 15 May 2018, and any elusive or negative decision of the Court would be scandalous, and immediately impugned. The lawsuit was already joined by more than 500 citizens and enterprises of the Free Territory of Trieste and of other States, and new adhesions are open until 13 May through the secretary office of the Free Trieste Movement (LINK).

The new expertise was also directly notified to all bodies that exercise the Italian temporary civil administration over the Free Territory of Trieste, with an official invitation to respect it and to re-establish the rule of law (LINK), as well as to the President of the Italian Republic and to the Italian Government for them to take all measures that fall under their competences.

Through the I.P.R. F.T.T. citizens and enterprises of the Free Territory of Trieste and of other States can now start using the same expertises in their own legal actions on taxation, commerce, and customary matters versus administering Italian authorities of the Free Territory and of its International Free Port before all competent judicial authorities.

The I.P.R. F.T.T. has already proposed that the procedure to reach the complete enforcement of all economic and fiscal rights of the Free Territory of Trieste and of the rights of other States over its International Free Port be decided with a multilateral negotiation between the international subjects most involved.

The complete enforcement of the economic roles of the present-day Free Territory of Trieste as International Free Port and as financial center, which have remained paralysed for decades, has strategic relevance both to increase international trades and for the economic and political stabilization of South-Eastern Europe within the Atlantic Alliance.

For this purpose, the expertises of the I.P.R. F.T.T. do also underline the possibility to extend the free zones of the International Free Port del Free Territory of Trieste to the other three strategic ports of Eastern Adriatic: Koper (Slovenia), Rijeka and Ploče (Croatia).

The ultimate evidence of the lack of foundation of the old propagandas of Italian nationalism about the question of the Free Territory of Trieste does also make it possible disprove and put an end to identical, related Italian political claims and propagandas against Slovenia and Croatia.

F.W.