510 italian practice relating to international law

XI. TREATMENT OF ALIENS AND NATIONALITY

Th e Diplomatic Row b etween Ital y and Au stria o v er Vienna ’s dra f t laws on d u al nationalit y and cons u lar assistance f or German - and Ladin -spea k in g So u t h Ty roleans

German-speakers in the Provincia Autonoma di Bolzano – Alto Adige (Autonomous Province Bolzano – South Tyrol, hereinafter “South Tyrol”) con- stitute 69.6% of the total population of the Province, the rest belonging to the Italian (25.8%) and Ladin (4.5%) ethno-linguistic groups.7 South Tyrol enjoys a high level of self-government and fiscal autonomy, according to Article 6 of the Italian Constitution,8 the provisions of the 1946 Accordo De Gasperi – Gruber (De Gasperi – Gruber Agreement) between Italy and Austria,9 also known as Paris Agreement, and the 1972 second Autonomy Statute for South Tyrol.10 Under the Paris Agreement, in particular, Austria exercises a protective func- tion for South Tyrol, historically monitoring progress towards the attainment of autonomy by the Province. To this extent, in 1960, Austria submitted the ques- tion of the implementation of South Tyrol’s autonomy to the General Assembly of the United Nations (UN). The dispute was settled on 19 June 1992, by means of a discharge issued by both States before the UN, after all the measures that make South Tyrol’s autonomy a unique model of minorities’ protection had been enacted.11 Against this background, in 2017, the decision of the Austrian Government to support a reform of its domestic legislation favoring the acquisition of dual citizenship by German and Ladin South-Tyroleans became a significant source of tension between the two neighboring countries. Indeed, the debate on the at- tribution of the Austrian citizenship to South Tyroleans can be traced back to at least a decade before. Since 2006, the autonomist party Südtiroler Volkspartei (SVP – South Tyrolean People’s Party) had lobbied for the attribution of Austrian

7 Autonomous Province of South Tyrol, Provincial Statistics Institute – ASTAT, “South Tyrol in Figures 2017”, 2018, available at: . 8 Italian Parliament, Parliamentary Information, Archives and Publications Office of the Senate Service for Official Reports and Communication, Constitution of the Italian Republic, available at: . 9 De Gasperi – Gruber Agreement, signed on 5 September 1946 by the Foreign Minister of Austria, Karl Gruber, and the President of the Council of Ministers of Italy, Alcide De Gasperi, available at: . 10 Decreto del Presidente della Repubblica 31 agosto 1972, n. 670, Approvazione del testo unico delle leggi costituzionali concernenti lo statuto speciale per il Trentino – Alto Adige, available at: . 11 On the involvement of the United Nations and for a comprehensive overview of the South Tyrol question, see: Hilpold , “South Tyrol”, in Max Planck Encyclopedia of Public International Law, on-line edition (January 2008); Woel k , Mar k o and Palermo (eds.), Tolerance through Law: Self Governance and Group Rights in South Tyrol, Leiden-Boston, 2008.

© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, ��19 | doi:10.1163/��116133_0�801035 DIPLOMATIC AND PARLIAMENTARY PRACTICE 511 citizenship to German-speaking South Tyroleans.12 Already in 2009, a first draft law by the Freiheitliche Partei Österreichs (FPÖ – Freedom Party of Austria),13 although subsequently rejected by the Austrian Parliament, prompted a reaction by the Ministro degli Affari esteri e della Cooperazione internazionale (Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation), Mr Franco Frattini, who, in a diplomatic note transmitted to Vienna, defined the proposal as a “non-friendly gesture towards Italy”.14 The proposal for a dual citizenship for South-Tyroleans was further discussed following a 2011 motion filed by the Consiglio della Provincia Autonoma di Bolzano (South Tyrol’s Council)15 and a 2013 citizens’ initiative,16 for which on 9 April 2014 the Austrian Parliament instituted an ad hoc subcommittee, the Südtirol Unterausschuss (South Tyrol Subcommittee), within the Außenpolitische Ausschuss (Foreign Affairs Committee). In 2017, 19 South-Tyrolean Councilors sent a letter to the FPÖ and the Österreichische Volkspartei (ÖVP – Austrian People’s Party) leaders, Mr Heinz Christian Strache and Mr. Sebastian Kurz, claiming that “South Tyroleans have lost their Austrian citizenship with the involuntary annexation of South Tyrol by Italy. The regaining of citizenship would now be an act of reparation”,17 thus securing the official support of the Freedom Party of Austria. On 19 December 2017, the newly formed Austrian Government envisaged, in the program agreed upon by the two coalition parties, FPÖ and ÖVP, a “rethink-

12 On the political campaign by Siegfried Brugger and Karl Zeller, see SVP-Club der Ehemaligen Mandatarinnen und Mandatare (SVP Club of Former Mandators), Doppel- Staatsbürgerschaft für Südtiroler. Eine europäische Geste des Vaterlandes Österreich als Ausdruck der Verbindung mit der österreichischen Minderheit und zur Vertiefung der öster- reichisch-italienischen Freundschaft im europäischen Geist, 2018, p. 4, available at: . 13 Austrian Parliament, Entschließungsantrag der Abgeordneten Neubauer, DDr. Königshofer, Gartlgruber und weiterer Abgeordneter betreffen Verleihung der österreich- ischen Staatsbürgerschaft an Altösterreicher mit einer fremden Staatsangehörigkeit, die vor den Pariser Vorortverträgen auf dem Gebiet Südtirols und Trentino samt Cortina D’Ampezzo gelebt haben, sowie an deren Nachfaren, 532/A(E) XXIV. GP, available at: . 14 As reported by the Italian press, see e.g. “Cittadinanza austriaca agli ex sudditi. Ma non a tutti”, Messaggero Veneto, 28 April 2010, available at: . 15 Consiglio della Provincia Autonoma di Bolzano, Resoconto integrale della seduta del Consiglio Provinciale n. 138, 9 March 2012, Mozione n. 338/11 del 27-6-2011, presentata dai consiglieri Knoll e Klotz, riguardante Raccomandazioni di Bolzano all’OSCE, pp. 51-56, avai- lable at: . The motion was approved with 19 votes in favor, 4 against, and 3 abstentions. 16 Austrian Parliament, Bürgerinitiative 7/BI XXV. GP, 29 October 2013, available at . 17 As reported by the press, see, e.g., “L’Alto Adige riaccende il sogno della doppia cit- tadinanza: ‘Ci sentiamo più austriaci’”, La Stampa, 12 October 2017, available at: . See also “Lettera a Vienna per doppia cittadinanza”, Ansa, 21 November 2017, available at: .