Treaty of Osimo
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The Treaty of Osimo was signed on November 10, 1975, by the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and Italy in Osimo definitely dividing the Free Territory of Trieste. The treaty was written in French and became effective on October 11, 1977.
The treaty was based on the "Memorandum of Understanding" that was signed in London in 1954, which gave a provisional civil administration of Zone A to Italy, and Zone B to Yugoslavia. The Treaty of Osimo merely made this situation definite. Zone A, including the city of Trieste, became the Italian Province of Trieste, but Yugoslavia was granted free access to the port of Trieste.
The Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs was never involved in the negotiation, which was carried on almost single-handedly by Eugenio Carbone, then Director General of the Ministry of Industry and Commerce, who also signed the Treaty on behalf of the Italian government. For Yugoslavia the treaty was signed by the Minister of Foreign Affairs Miloš Minić.
[edit] Criticism in Italy
The Italian government was criticized harshly for signing the treaty, particularly for the secretive way in which negotiations were carried out, skipping the traditional diplomatic channels. Italian nationalists rejected the idea of giving up Istria, which had long had a largely Italian population and had belonged to Italy for the 25 years between World War I and the end of World War II, and some even called for the prosecution of the then Prime Minister and the Minister of Foreign Affairs for the crime of treason, as stated in Article 241 of the Italian Criminal Code, who mandates a life sentence for anybody found guilty of aiding and abetting a foreign power to exert its sovereignty on the national territory. Furthermore, the treaty did not guarantee the protection of the Italian minority in the Yugoslav zone - while it also did not do this for the Slovenian minority in the Italian zone. The question of protection of minorities was to be taken care of later through the signing of separate protocols.
[edit] Slovenia's and Croatia's independence
Slovenia declared its independence in 1991 and was recognized internationally in 1992. Though the treaty's applicability was now in question, Slovenia then released a declaration, saying it would recognize the treaty. Solving this question had been made a pre-condition for Slovenian entry into the European Union.
No such declaration was made by the Croatian government. However, Italy did not find this as important. The treaty was never questioned by Croatia and considers it a valid treaty.
[edit] References
This article is based on a translation of an article from the German Wikipedia.
