Information Note on the Court’s case-law No. 151
April 2012
Grudić v. Serbia - 31925/08
Judgment 17.4.2012 [Section II]
Article 46
Article 46-2
Execution of judgment
Measures of a general character
Respondent State required to implement laws in order to secure payment of pensions to insured persons in Kosovo
Facts – The applicants, two Serbian nationals, were granted disability pensions by the Kosovo Branch Office of the Serbian Pensions and Disability Insurance Fund (“the Fund”). They regularly received their pensions until June 1999 and January 2000 respectively when the monthly payments stopped without any explanation. In May 2004 and March 2005 the Fund formally decided to suspend the payment of their pensions from the dates the payments had stopped on the grounds that Kosovo was under international administration. In 2006 a district court annulled the Fund’s decisions after noting that they did not refer to the relevant law. The Fund’s subsequent appeals were rejected by the Supreme Court. In 2008 the Fund suspended the proceedings brought by the applicants for the resumption of payment of their pensions until such time as the entire issue was resolved between the Serbian authorities and the international administration in Kosovo.
Law – Article 1 of Protocol No. 1: The suspensions of payment of the applicants’ pensions had not been in accordance with the relevant domestic law.
Conclusion: violation (unanimously).
Article 46: In view of the large number of potential applicants, the respondent Government were required to take all appropriate measures to ensure that the competent Serbian authorities implemented the relevant laws in order to secure payment of the pensions and arrears in question, it being understood that certain reasonable and speedy factual and/or administrative verification procedures might be necessary.
© Council of Europe/European Court of Human Rights
This summary by the Registry does not bind the Court.
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