TRIESTE – The The Italian State must not further compensate the Julian and Dalmatian exiles who lost their assets in the territories ceded to Yugoslavia under the 1947 Peace Treaty, expropriated or nationalized by the Yugoslav government. This is underlined by the Cassation Court in United SectionsThe Court was called to decide on the appeal presented by some exiles, and their heirs, who had sued the Presidency of the Council and the Ministry of Economy, judging the sums paid to them as compensation to be late (they were established only with the Treaty of Osimo of 1975, made executive in the 80s) and "derisory".

Pointing to a fairly recent precedent, a 2004 ruling by the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights on compensation from Poland after the agreements reached with the Soviet Republics, the applicants had taken the State to court in Trieste asking for a ruling on their right to be compensated for the consequences of the peace agreement after the Second World War, losing both at first instance and on appeal. Now the Court of Cassation (sentence 8055, hearing of 25 March) underlines how in fact there is «a subjective right of the party towards the public administration», but this «does not limit the choices of the legislator in determining the amount of compensation» which is an intervention «inspired by criteria of solidarity of the national community», and not by «an obligation of a compensatory nature for an illicit act, not attributable to the Italian State».

It was then Jugoslavia with its own policy of nationalization, to proceed with the expropriation of assets belonging to Italian citizens. Therefore, the Italian State "is not the author of the violation", "since the deprivation of the assets of Italian citizens occurred at the hands of a foreign State, to which the territory on which they were located was ceded by Italy, defeated in the war conflict". And in this - the Joint Sections observed - the case is different from that judged by the European Court, which refers to an agreement between two states that emerged victorious from the conflict, regarding the eastern border of Poland and the agreements with Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania, "with the assumption, by the Polish State, of a specific obligation of compensation towards its citizens".

«The Gazzettino», 07/04/14

The Adriatic Observer