The hours that follow the are hours of high tension between Rome and Brasilia decision of the Court of Arezzo to block the current accounts of the Brazilian Embassy in Rome, of the two consulates in Rome and Milan and a foreclosure for a total of 15,7 million euros. The decision has disrupted the functioning of the diplomatic offices which are having many difficulties in these days to keep the administrative machinery going.
Already today, the secretary general of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Brasilia, Ruy Nogueira, will fly to Rome to negotiate a solution with the Italian government and overcome the impasse. According to the Brazilian State Attorney's Office, the measure imposed by the Italian Justice would be illegitimate as contrary to the Vienna Convention which establishes that the functioning of diplomatic services be protected by immunity and cannot be blocked by foreign judicial initiatives.
The story stems from a lawsuit filed by the Italplan Engineering, a company based in Terranuova Bracciolini, in the province of Arezzo, commissioned in 2005 by the Brazilian state company Valec to carry out a study on the high-speed train that will have to connect São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, a project in which Ansaldo Breda is also interested. This is an impressive infrastructure that has been under discussion for many years, and yet still sitting in the drawer: an initial estimate foresees a cost of at least 14 billion euros for a section of around 500km, but depending on the number of tunnels built, the costs could rise further.
After working on the project for four years, opening an office in Brasilia and transferring about forty employees, in 2009 Italplan presented its plan to Valec and a fee of 261 million euros. However, the Italian project was put aside and Valec refused to pay the bill.
Hence the sentence of last September 23, issued by the Montevarchi section, which condemns the Brazilian state (100% holder of Valec) to compensate Italplan for 15,7 million euros. On October 13, the judges then forwarded the notification to the Presidency of the Republic of Brazil and to the State Attorney's Office, depositing it at the Embassy in Rome. A sentence which, in the following 60 days, was never challenged by the Brazilian government and which, as a consequence, last week led to the blocking of Banco do Brasil current accounts active in green-gold diplomatic offices in Italy.
According to the Brazilian State Attorney's Office, the communication by the Arezzo court would not have taken place in an adequate form and would not have allowed the green-gold government to present an appeal. Even if the Brazilian Foreign Ministry tries to downplay the story, claiming that it is just a legal issue, tension is once again very high between Brasilia and Rome.
After the political-judicial case involving Cesare Battistidiplomatic relations between the two countries have undoubtedly suffered a deterioration. Even if in the official statements relations are described as idyllic, small episodes however raise more than one doubt: in fact, in recent weeks, the space in front of the main entrance to the Brazilian Embassy in Rome has been cordoned off, preventing the passage of cars and forcing the ´ambassador José Viegas Filho to enter from the back, not without creating inconvenience and embarrassment.
As well as those that this story is bound to raise again. What appears certain is that, for one reason or another, the Tav, whether Italian or Brazilian, does nothing but create problems for the Italian government.
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