Resolution CM/ResDH(2010)199[1]
Execution of the judgments of the European Court of Human Rights
Gennari, Perinati and Pierotti against Italy
(Application No. 32550/03, judgment of 08 December 2009, final on 08 March 2010
Application No. 8073/05, judgment of 06 October 2009, final on 06 January 2010
Application No. 15581/05, judgment of 20 January 2009, final on 20 April 2009)
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 all these cases concern inadequate compensation awarded to the applicants for the expropriation of their land (violations of Article 1 of Protocol No. 1) and in the case Perinati also the unfairness of related judicial proceedings due to the retroactive application of a provision (Article 5bis of Law No. 359 of 1992) reducing compensation for expropriation to less than half of the market value of the property and taxing it (violation of Article 6, paragraph 1);
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;
Having satisfied itself that the respondent state paid the applicants the just satisfaction provided in the judgments (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(2010)199
Information on the measures taken to comply with the judgments in the cases of
Gennari, Perinati and Pierotti against Italy
Introductory case summary
These cases concern violations of the applicants’ right to the peaceful enjoyment of their possessions due to the disproportionately low compensation awarded to them between 2003 and 2005 following lawful expropriation of their land. The amounts, which were fixed under Article 5bis of Law No. 359 of 1992, were significantly less (almost less than half) than the market value of the property, and furthermore taxed at a rate of 20%, without being based on any reason of public interest (violations of Article 1 of Protocol No. 1).
The European Court found that the expropriations at issue represented for the applicants a disproportionate and excessive burden since they did not form part of any economic, social or political reform or of any other exceptional circumstance. Thus it could find no legitimate public-interest objective to justify reimbursement at less than market value of the property.
In addition, in the case Perinati the Court found that Article 5bis of Law No. 359 of 1992, by changing the law applicable to compensation of expropriations under way as well as to pending judicial proceedings concerning them, retroactively applied a new compensation regime providing payments lower than the market value of the goods (see above) thus violating the applicant’s right to fair proceedings (violation of Article 6§1). The government had not demonstrated any “overriding general interest” to justify the retroactive application of this provision.
I.Payments of just satisfaction and individual measures
a) Details of just satisfaction
Name and application number
Pecuniary damage
Non-pecuniary damage
Costs and expenses
Total
Paid on
Gennari
32550/03
-
-
-
-
-
Perinati
8073/05
740 000 EUR
5 000 EUR
5 000 EUR
750 000 EUR
09/03/2010
Pierotti
15581/05
340 000 EUR
-
-
340 000 EUR
12/06/2009
b) Individual measures
The European Court awarded just satisfaction in respect of the full amount of pecuniary and non-pecuniary damage sustained, except for the case Pierotti (only pecuniary damages) and Gennari (no claim submitted for just satisfaction). As regards the amount of pecuniary damages, the Court awarded “an amount corresponding to the difference between the value of the property at the time of expropriation [...] and the amount obtained at domestic level, plus indexation and interest so as to offset, at least in part, the long period for which the applicants have been deprived of the land” (judgment Perinati, §29, see also §22 of the Pierotti judgment).
II.General measures
General measures (declaration of unconstitutionality; legislative changes) were already adopted in the framework of the execution of the cases Sarnelli and Matteoni and others. For further details, see Final Resolution CM/ResDH(2010)100, adopted by the Committee of Ministers in the cases Sarnelli and Matteoni and others against Italy, on 15 September 2010.
III.Conclusions of the respondent state
The government considers that no individual measures are necessary in these cases apart from the payment of the just satisfaction awarded by the European Court, that the general measures adopted will prevent similar violations and that Italy 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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