Resolution CM/ResDH(2010)167[1]
Execution of the judgment of the European Court of Human Rights
in the case of Assymomitis against Greece
(Application No. 67629/01, judgment of 14 October 2004, final on 14 January 2005)
The Committee of Ministers, under the terms of Article 46, paragraph 2, of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, which provides that the Committee supervises the execution of final judgments of the European Court of Human Rights (hereinafter “the Convention” and “the Court”);
Having regard to the judgment transmitted by the Court to the Committee once it had become final;
Recalling that the violations of the Convention found by the Court in this case concern disproportionate interference with the applicants’ right to peaceful enjoyment of their possessions (violation of Article 1 of Protocol No. 1) .The case also concerns the excessive length of proceedings before the Council of State (violation of Article 6, paragraph 1, of the Convention) (see details in Appendix);
Having invited the government of the respondent state to inform the Committee of the measures taken to comply with Greece’s obligation under Article 46, paragraph 1, of the Convention to abide by the judgment;
Having examined the information provided by the government in accordance with the Committee’s Rules for the application of Article 46, paragraph 2, of the Convention;
Having satisfied itself that, within the time-limit set, the respondent state paid the applicants the just satisfaction provided in the judgment (see details in Appendix),
Recalling that a finding of violations by the Court requires, over and above the payment of just satisfaction awarded in the judgment, the adoption by the respondent state, where appropriate:
- of individual measures to put an end to the violations and erase their consequences so as to achieve as far as possible restitutio in integrum; and
- of general measures, preventing similar violations;
DECLARES, having examined the measures taken by the respondent state (see Appendix), that it has exercised its functions under Article 46, paragraph 2, of the Convention in this case and
DECIDES to close the examination of this case.
Appendix to Resolution CM/ResDH(2010)167
Information about the measures to comply with the judgment in the case of
Assymomitis against Greece
Introductory case summary
The case concerns the violation of the applicants’ right to peaceful enjoyment of their possessions in that the administration, by its acts and omissions, had prevented them from carrying out work on their land since 1992, despite having obtained a building permit. An application, lodged by the municipality in 1993, to have the decision to allow the works on the applicants’ land to continue quashed, was rejected as inadmissible by the Council of State in 1999.
The European Court found that the authorities’ acts and omissions taken as a whole (the length of the proceedings in the Supreme Administrative Court, which ended with the judgment of 1999, the conduct of the relevant authorities after that date and their failure to provide clear and reliable answers in a straightforward procedure relating to planning permission) left the applicants in a state of prolonged uncertainty as to what would become of their property, thus imposing on them an individual and excessive burden which had upset the fair balance between the requirements of the general interest and the protection of the right to the peaceful enjoyment of their property (violation of Article 1 of Protocol No. 1).
The case also concerns the excessive length in proceedings initiated by two of the applicants before the Council of State (from April 1993 to February 2002, more than 9 years) (violation of Article 6§1).
I.Payment of just satisfaction and individual measures
a) Details of just satisfaction
Pecuniary damage
Non-pecuniary damage
Costs and expenses
Total
100 000 EUR
15 000 EUR
25 986 EUR
140 986 EUR
Paid on 14/04/2005
b) Individual measures
In December 2005, after the European Court’s judgment, the municipality concerned lifted the qualification of the applicants’ land as a green area. In February 2006 the urban planning office qualified the relevant land as constructible. These decisions were approved by the Athens Prefecture by a decision published in the Official Journal – D – No. 431 of 23/05/2006.
Finally, it is noted that the European Court awarded the applicants just satisfaction in respect of pecuniary damages covering the loss of earnings from the date when the building permit was issued (May 1992) until the delivery of the judgment.
Consequently, no other individual measure was considered necessary by the Committee of Minsters.
II.General measures
1) violation of Article 1 of Protocol No. 1: The Athens Prefecture sent a note on 4/10/2005 to all services involved in urban planning under its competence regarding the findings of the European Court in this case putting emphasis on the direct effect of the Convention and the Court’s case-law, and underlining that no similar cases should occur and that landowners should be promptly compensated where town plans qualify land as being for public use.
2) As regards the violation of Article 6§1: Greece has adopted a number of legislative and other measures to accelerate proceedings before administrative courts (see Final Resolution ResDH(2005)65 on Pafitis and others and 14 other cases against Greece). However, additional issues in this field are highlighted in more recent judgments. The measures taken or envisaged by the Greek authorities are being supervised by the Committee of Ministers in the Manios group.
Finally, the judgment of the European Court was promptly sent to the Ministry of Justice and to the Council of State, and translated and published on the site of the State Legal Council ().
III.Conclusions of the respondent state
The government considers that the measures adopted have fully remedied the consequences for the applicants of the violations of the Convention found by the European Court in this case, that these measures will prevent new similar violations and that Greece has thus complied with its obligations under Article 46, paragraph 1, of the Convention.
[1] Adopted by the Committee of Ministers on 2 December 2010 at the 1100th meeting of the Ministers’ Deputies
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