Statement about the legal action of the I.P.R. F.T.T.

against illegal taxation imposed by the

administering Italian Government and its Fiscal Agencies

Press conference held on June 8th, 2017, in Trieste

Trieste, 8 June 2017. – The International Provisional Representative of the Free Territory of Trieste – I.P.R. F.T.T. has brought a legal action against the Italian Government, its Ministry of Economy and Finances, its Fiscal Agencies (Tax Revenues, State Property, Customs and Monopolies) and the INPS (Italian National Institute of Social Insurance) to verify the legitimacy of taxation in the name, on behalf, and in the budget of the Italian State in Trieste, and requesting to suspend all enforced recoveries as a precautionary measure.

The legal action depends on the circumstance that in Trieste the Italian Government does not exercise the sovereignty of the Italian State, rather, it exercises the sovereignty of the present-day Free Territory of Trieste, the temporary civil administration of which is sub-entrusted to it by the Governments of the United States of America and of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, on behalf of the United Nations.

For this reason, in Trieste, the Italian Government can only collect taxes of the administered Free Territory and it must register them in the budget of its administration, as correctly done by the previous, British-United States Government.

The urgent necessity of this legal action depends on the fact that the excessive burden of the taxation of the Italian State in the Free Territory of Trieste ruins its enterprises diverts investors, and impoverishes the citizens that cannot defend themselves with the instruments of democracy because they are prevented from electing their own representatives, as the elections and political bodies of the Italian State are forced on them.

This Representative is upset and seriously concerned by the human, economic and strategic consequences of the fact that our Italian brothers and their enterprises are burdened by the excessive taxation and public debt caused by manifest inabilities and well-known corruptions of their ruling class.

However, it is not legitimate, nor it is tolerable, that the Italian Government forces the excessive taxes and the public debt of the Italian State on the people and on the enterprises of the Free Territory of Trieste it administers, violating also the rights of other States and their enterprises over the international Free Port of Trieste.

The present-day Free Territory of Trieste is not a property of Italy, nor it is one of its colonies, rather, it is an independent State and international Free Port under the protection of the United Nations Security Council, and entrusted, since 1947, to the temporary administration of the Governments of the United States and of the United Kingdom, and sub-entrusted by them to the temporary civil administration of the Italian Government and to the military defense of the NATO.

The citizens and the enterprises of the Free Territory of Trieste and the operators of the international Free Port operators do therefore have the right and duty to pay to the administering Government only the taxes of their own State, a duty that cannot be separated from the right to elect freely their own representatives: no taxation without representation.

The tax abuses committed by the administering Italian Government in the Free Territory of Trieste have therefore opened a relevant legal, economic, and political dispute, which can be settled on different levels that are independent from each other, with different levels of involvement of the High Parties concerned.

Internationally, the dispute can be settled with the procedures established for disputes about the interpretation and execution of the provisions of the Treaty of Peace with Italy of February 10th, 1947, or of the administrative obligations established with the 1954 Memorandum of Understanding of London regarding the Free Territory of Trieste.

However, the most immediate and direct action is to summon the Italian Government and its Fiscal Agencies before the Civil Court of Trieste for the breach the laws that recognize their international obligations towards the Free Territory of Trieste and, since 1947, implement those international obligations in the Italian legal system with a rank higher than national laws.

For instance, the laws that implement international obligations in the Italian legal system constitute a univocal and coherent corpus of highest-ranking laws, accompanied also by the whole, parallel legislation of the regime of temporary civil administration of the Free Territory of Trieste, which consists in the orders in force of the first British-United States Government, the decrees of the successive General Commissioner of the Italian Government, and the other bodies delegated to exercise this administration.

The International Provisional Representative of the Free Territory of Trieste is entitled to act also before Italian Courts because it is an agency for representation that acts upon delegation of the citizens and enterprises concerned. Therefore, it has opened this legal action for determination, which is now open to the intervention of all citizens and enterprises concerned with a simple act, becoming it a class action.

In this legal action, this Representative has respected the rules of diplomacy and of law, informing all international Parties concerned and scheduling the first hearing on November 27th, allowing the summoned Italian authorities and bodies to have the means and time to open a reasonable and efficient negotiation out of court.

At the same time, this Representative has respected the urgent needs of the citizens and enterprises of the Free Territory, who can already join the legal action for determination using their intervention to obtain the suspension of enforced recoveries revolving on taxes that are dispute in this lawsuit.

The writ of summon was notified to Italian authorities on May 22nd, 2017 and the legal action is officially registered at the Civil Court of Trieste since May 29th, under protocol number 1757/2017.

In the following days, this Representative will publish on its website all documents and information necessary for that, for everyone to evaluate and use them according to their needs.

The actions needed for the interventions of the citizens and enterprises to join the legal action for determination are entrusted to the courtesy and competence of the Free Trieste Movement.

Trieste, 8.6.2017.

                                                                                                                    Paolo G. Parovel

Secretary General of the I.P.R. F.T.T.

Press release: