Trieste: the Northern Free Port’ ownership transfers are blocked
PRESS CONFERENCE ON MONDAY, 11AM, IN PIAZZA DELLA BORSA 7
The Free Trieste Movement informs that, despite the ongoing declarations of local politicians, the areas of the Northern Free Port, also known as “Old Port”, were not transferred to the City. All transfers are blocked by the verification and registration of the current ownership, established by the law.
This is because, overcoming previous obstacles, Free Trieste lodged a new procedure of inscription and intavolazione (registration within the Land Registry Book) the port area’s ownership in accordance with the latest legal title in force on the matter. That legal title is the 1947 Treaty of Peace, which rules that the assets in question are the Free Territory of Trieste’s demanio (State Property) and they are owned and used by its main State Corporation: the “international Free Port of Trieste“.
That Treaty is fully implemented in the Italian legal system, and the laws that ratify and enforce it are in force. Furthermore, the Treaty gives raise to international obligation and the Italian Constitution rules that these rank higher than domestic laws. International provisions must be enforced first, even ex officio, and this is a necessary premise even in case of amendment requests.
The politician’s operation to remove the Northern Free Port from State Property (sdemanializzazione) and from port use fails to address the question of ownership. Those assets were not registered in the Land Registry Office, rather, they were listed in a register of public properties (elenco del bene pubblico) and this didn’t include changes of use either.
Because, again, changing the area’s status requires registering it in the Land Register as well, and doing so requires legal titles prevailing on the Treaty of Peace, and there is none.
Press Office of the Free Trieste