Resolution CM/ResDH(2013)167
Birzescu and others and Fundatia Bucovina Mission Inc. and Fundatia Bucovina Bucuresti
against Romania
Execution of judgments of the European Court of Human Rights
(Applications Nos. 9304/05 and 1231/04, final judgments of 25 September 2012)
(Adopted by the Committee of Ministers on 11 September 2013
at the 1177th meeting of the Ministers’ Deputies)
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 judgments transmitted by the Court to the Committee once they had become final;
Recalling that the violations of the Convention found by the Court in these cases concern the quashing of final court decisions by the Supreme Court following applications for nullity (recursuri in anulare) lodged by the Procurator General (violations of Article 6, paragraph 1 and of Article 1 of Protocol No. 1) (see details in Appendix);
Having invited the government of the respondent State to inform the Committee of the measures taken to comply with its obligation under Article 46, paragraph 1, of the Convention to abide by the judgments;
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;
Noting that no award of just satisfaction was made by the Court in the present cases (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 judgments, 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
- 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 these cases and
DECIDES to close the examination of these cases.
Appendix to Resolution CM/ResDH(2013)167
Information on the measures taken to comply with the judgments in the cases of Birzescu and others and Fundatia Bucovina Mission Inc. and Fundatia Bucovina Bucuresti against Romania
Introductory case summary
These cases concern the quashing of final court decisions by the Supreme Court, in 2003 and 2004, following applications for nullity lodged by the Procurator General under Article 330 and Article 3301 of the Code of Civil Procedure (violations of Article 6, paragraph 1 and Article 1 of Protocol No. 1).
I.Payments of just satisfaction and individual measures
a) Details of just satisfaction
The Court did not award just satisfaction, having noted that the applicants had not submitted any claim to this end (in the Fundatia Bucovina Mission Inc. and Fundatia Bucovina Bucuresti case) or that they had submitted their claims out of the time-limit fixed for this purpose (in the Birzescu and others case).
b) Individual measures
It should be noted that Article 322 § 9 of the Code of Civil Procedure allows the applicants to lodge an extraordinary appeal (revizuire) following a European Court’s judgment finding a violation of the Convention, in order to obtain restitutio in integrum.
Consequently, no other individual measure was considered necessary by the Committee of Ministers.
II.General measures
The government referred to the measures that had been taken to avoid new similar violations, as set out in Resolution CM/ResDH(2007)90 (in particular the fact that Articles 330 and 3301 of the Code of Civil Procedure were repealed by Article 1 § 17 of Emergency Ordinance No. 58 of 25 June 2003 passed by the government, published in the Official Journal on 28 June 2003, which received parliamentary approval on 25 May 2004).
III.Conclusions of the respondent State
The government considers that the measures taken have fully erased the consequences for the applicants of the violations of the Convention found by the European Court in these cases and will prevent new similar violations in future and that Romania has thus complied with its obligations under Article 46, paragraph 1 of the Convention.
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