Il Corriere di Trieste

The International Provisional Representative of the Free Territory of Trieste – I.P.R. F.T.T. has summoned before Court the Italian Government, some of its Ministries, and some of its bodies, including the Port Authority, under the accusation of violating the legal status and tax regime of the international Free Port of Trieste, and for concluding illegitimate agreements with State enterprises of the People’s Republic of China. The first hearing is to take place on 9 April 2020. The writ of summon is published at the following links (in English and in its original Italian version), and it summarizes the legal foundation of the question of Trieste.

The international Free Port of the Free Territory of Trieste is the only free port in which all States have the right to trade, store, and manufacture their freight without discriminations of taxes, only paying for rendered port services, as well a enjoying full freedom of transit through other States; furthermore, the international Free Port is to be placed under the control of a specific International Commission.

As known, the present-day Free Territory of Trieste is a State established by the 10 February 1947 Treaty of Peace between the Allied and Associated Powers with Italy, it borders with Italy and, since 1992, with Slovenia; since 1954, it is sub-entrusted to the temporary civil administration of the Italian Government by the Governments of the U.S. and of the U.K. as primary administering Governments on behalf of the UN Security Council, and it does not belong to the European Union (LINK).

However, the Italian Government violates the sub-mandate of temporary civil administration on the Free Territory of Trieste and the rights of all States by managing the international Free Port of Trieste as if it were an Italian national port instead, as well as using it to promote the economic and political-strategic penetration of the PRC within Europe.

The I.P.R. F.T.T. is an Agency for representation established in 2015 by delegation of citizens and enterprises of the Free Territory and of other States (LINK), which does also defend Trieste, the economic interests of the international community of States, and the Euro-Atlantic strategic balances by opposing, with its legal actions, to the breaches committed by the sub-administering Italian Government.

The lawsuits of the I.P.R. F.T.T. against the illegal enforcement of Italian taxation in the Free Territory are already supported by more than 800 citizens and enterprises from Trieste and from other States.

The lawsuit on the international Free Port of Trieste, in particular, revolves on the violations committed by the Italian administration with illegal housing speculations at the expenses of the Northern Free Port, with the illegitimate collection of Italian taxes on fuels, gas, and electricity, as well as with an illegitimate strategic agreement between the Port Authority and PRC State investors (LINK). 

By doing so, the Italian Government and its bodies commit simultaneous violations of the fundamental laws of the administered Free Territory, and also the laws of the Italian Republic. The lawsuits of the I.P.R. F.T.T. are thus open before the Court of Trieste, which is managed by Italian magistrates who are legally bound to respect both legal orders.

In particular, the lawsuit challenges a series of Italian laws, taxes, and acts as unenforceable, because they conflict with upper-ranking laws, in force, that enforce international obligations within the Italian legal order itself. That series includes:

• the provisions of Italian Law 190/2014, which envision the subtraction of constrained areas of the international Free Port of Trieste, namely the Northern Free Port, and their sale on the real estate market through the Municipality of Trieste;
• the Municipality’s official acts and expenditures on those assets on its own behalf and on that of third parties, also in breach of the obligation to sell those port assets off;
• the enforcement of the accise (excise duties; taxes on the production and sale) of the Italian State on fuels, combustibles (including gas), and on electricity within the international Free Port as well as in the Free Territory of Trieste;
• the demand of the IMU – Imposta Municipale Unica // Consolidated Municipal Tax to the concessionaires of buildings located within the international Free Port;
• the enforcement of overtaxation to the international Free Port of Trieste to favor the competing ports of the Italian State;
• the undue decision to assign to the President of the aforementioned Italian Port Authority the functions that, instead, are legally assigned to the Director of the Free Port and to the Commissioner of the sub-administering Italian Government;
• the agreements concluded by that President of the Italian Port Authority with State enterprises of the People’s Republic of China.

This means that the value of the lawsuit amounts to several billion Euro, and it has vital importance for all businesses that work or intend to work within the international Free Port or within the Free Territory of Trieste itself, for all of its current and future citizens and residents, as well as for the overall economic and social development of the Free Territory itself.

The citizens and the enterprises, from Trieste and from other States, join the lawsuits of the I.P.R. F.T.T. under art. 105 of the Italian Code of Civil Procedure. All paperwork is done by the Offices of the Free Trieste Movement, in piazza della Borsa 7, tel. (+39) 040 2470772, e-mail: LINK.

F.W.

Author of the English version: Silvia Verdoljak.