Resolution CM/ResDH(2008)86[1]
Execution of the judgment of the European Court of Human Rights
Smokovitis and others against Greece
(Application No. 46356/99, judgment of 11 April 2002, final on 11 July 2002)
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 case concerns the state’s legislative intervention in pending judicial proceedings (violation of Article 6, paragraph 1, of the Convention) and the resulting violation of the applicants’ right to the peaceful enjoyment of their 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 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 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 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(2008)86
Information about the measures taken to comply with the judgment
in the case of Smokovitis and others against Greece
Introductory case summary
The case concerns a violation of the twenty-four applicants’ right to a fair trial due to the fact that, in 1995, during proceedings between them and the state polytechnic school of Piraeus, the Court of Appeal applied Law No. 2233/1994, which had been adopted while the proceedings were pending and determined the substance of the dispute in favour of the state, and quashed a first-instance decision granting the applicants a financial benefit (violation of Article 6§1).
The European Court also found that by choosing to intervene at that stage of the proceedings before the Court of Appeal, the legislature upset, to the detriment of the applicants, the balance that must be struck between the demands of the general interest of the community and the requirements of the protection of the applicants’ right to peaceful enjoyment of their possessions (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
29 182 EUR
69 600 EUR
4 800 EUR
103 582 EUR
Paid on 09/10/2002
b) Individual measures
The European Court awarded the applicants non pecuniary as well as pecuniary damages covering the sums which had been awarded to them by the first instance court plus interest.
II.General measures
The case presents similarities with those of Papageorgiou (Resolution DH(99)714) and of Agoudimos and Cefallonian Sky Shipping Co. (Resolution ResDH(2004)2), closed following an extensive change in domestic case‑law, in conformity with the European Court’s judgments. It is also noted that by judgment 417/2004 of 06/04/2004 (published in the widely-read law journal Nomiko Vima, 2005, 678 and on the Athens Bar site, ), the Court of Cassation, in a later case raising the issue of legislative interference with the judiciary, once more confirmed the direct effect given to Articles 6, paragraph 1 and 1 of Protocol No. 1 to the Convention and set aside the relevant legislation.
The Court’s judgment was promptly translated and disseminated to competent judicial authorities and was published on the site of the State Legal Council ().
III.Conclusions of the respondent state
The government considers that the measures taken 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 8 October 2008 at the 1035th meeting of the Ministers’ Deputies
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