Resolution CM/ResDH(2010)165[1]
Execution of the judgment of the European Court of Human Rights
Platakou against Greece
(Application No. 38460/97, judgment of 11 January 2001, final on 05 September 2001)
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 referred to as “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 first, disproportionate constraint upon the applicant’s right of access to a court and the failure to respect the principle of equality of arms (violation of Article 6, paragraph 1) and secondly, the failure to respect the applicant’s right to the peaceful enjoyment of her possessions (violation 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 in order 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 applicant 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)165
Information about the measures to comply with the judgment in the case of
Platakou against Greece
Introductory case summary
The case concerns disproportionate constraint upon the applicant’s right of access to a court, in that her application to have the amount of compensation for her expropriated property fixed was declared inadmissible by the Court of Appeal in 1994 on the grounds that she had failed to comply with the time-limit set by the law for the notification of the application, even though this failure was the result of an error by the official bailiff. Furthermore, although the applicant subsequently submitted a special request to two different courts, neither examined the merits of her complaint concerning this error. The case also concerns a breach of the principle of equality of arms due to the provision that the suspension of all judicial time-limits during the period of the judicial vacations was in favour of the state (violation of Article 6§1).
Finally the case concerns the unreasonable difference between the value of the applicant’s property and the compensation determined by the domestic courts, which did not seem to take into account relevant documents produced by the applicant (violation of Article 1 of Protocol No. 1).
I.Payment of just satisfaction and individual measures
a) Details of just satisfaction
Pecuniary damage
Non-pecuniary damage
Costs and expenses
Total
90000000 drachmas
3000000
drachmas
6,710,000
drachmas
99710000 drachmas
Paid on 12/11/01
b) Individual measures
The European Court awarded the applicant just satisfaction in respect of non-pecuniary damages, as well as pecuniary damages equivalent to the difference between the valuation price of the property at issue and the sum awarded by the domestic court.
Consequently, no further measure was considered necessary by the Committee of Ministers.
General measures
The European Court’s judgment was sent out to competent judicial authorities and to the bailiffs’ confederation and published on the Website of the State Legal Council ().
In compliance with the European Court’s judgment, Law 3514/2006 was adopted and entered into force as from 20/12/2006. It provides that in all cases where the state is involved, no judicial time-limit may run during court vacation periods either against the state or against the litigants, while those which have already started to run before the vacation period begins, will be suspended until the end of this period. Well established case-law of the Court of Cassation and the Council of State implemented this legislative amendment.
III.Conclusions of the respondent state
The government considers that no individual measure is required, apart from the payment of the just satisfaction, that the general measures adopted will prevent 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
Full & Egal Universal Law Academy