Published on 10 June 2024
THIRD SECTION
Application no. 42737/21
Tinka Rusinova NIKOLOVA and Others against Bulgaria
and 2 other applications
(see list appended)
communicated on 21 May 2024
SUBJECT MATTER OF THE CASE
The applications concern the duration of restitution proceedings under the Agricultural Land Act and the Forests Restitution Act.
In application no. 42737/21, the applicants are among the heirs, with a three-fifths share, of R.D., who previously owned agricultural land. After the adoption of the Agricultural Land Act providing for the restitution of such land, in a decision of 18 May 1998 the competent State body recognised the heirs’ entitlement to restitution. The land claimed by them was however situated in an area where the State had allotted small plots to third parties, and in 2009 the authorities adopted a so-called plan of the newly created plots concerning that area which delimitated the parts acquired by third parties, the land which could be returned to the former owners, and the land taken by roads and other infrastructure. In the applicants’ case, the land taken by roads totalled 1,193 square metres, and the applicants were entitled to receive compensation for it. However, it appears that by the time of the applicants’ latest letter to the Court received in April 2024, no such compensation had yet been allotted to them, nor had any decision of the relevant State body setting the value or type of compensation been taken.
In application no. 29331/22, in three decisions dated 16 December 1996, 21 March 2007 and 8 October 2010 the competent State body acknowledged the applicants’ entitlement to compensation in lieu of the restitution in kind of 41,700 square metres of agricultural land previously owned by an ancestor of theirs. The applicant expressed a preference to receive other comparable land in compensation. Their land is situated in Sofia, where the compensation procedure concerning former owners of agricultural land has not yet been completed, due to difficulties in identifying appropriate land, seeing the development of the city in the meantime, and to the need to accommodate the needs of different interested parties.
Lastly, application no. 30116/23 concerns a restitution procedure already discussed in Popov and Chonin v. Bulgaria (no. 36094/08, 17 February 2015), where the Court examined the complaints of one of the applicants in the present case. In a decision of 12 December 2000 the competent State body recognised to the heirs of M.F. (the applicants’ shares total about four-fifths of the inheritance) the entitlement to receive compensation in lieu of the restitution in kind of 933,800 square metres of forestry land. Under the applicable Forests Restitution Act, the compensation can only be through equivalent State-owned land, and in the following years different State bodies attempted to identify plots of sufficient size and with forests of the required quality to offer in compensation. Several decisions taken in 2013 and 2018, but becoming final in 2023, allotted to the applicants plots of forestry land totalling about 413,000 square metres. The procedure has not yet been completed with regard to the remainder of the land due.
The applicants complain under Article 1 of Protocol No. 1 that the restitution procedures in their cases were overly lengthy.
QUESTION TO THE PARTIES
Are the restitution procedures involving the applicants excessively lengthy, and does this amount to a violation of Article 1 of Protocol No. 1 (see, among others, Popov and Chonin v. Bulgaria, no. 36094/08, 17 February 2015; Zikatanova and Others v. Bulgaria, no. 45806/11, 12 December 2019; Sheytanova v. Bulgaria [Committee], no. 42218/13, 1 September 2020; Gechevi v. Bulgaria [Committee], no. 54909/14, 22 June 2021)?
APPENDIX
No.
Application no.
Case name
Lodged on
Applicant
Year of Birth
Place of Residence
Nationality
Represented by
1.
42737/21
Nikolova and Others v. Bulgaria
26/02/2021
Tinka Rusinova NIKOLOVA
1935
Veilko Tarnovo
Bulgarian
Rozin Stefanov MILEV
1957
Veliko Tarnovo
Bulgarian
Byala Damyanova MILEVA
1938
Vaglevtsi
Bulgarian
Krasimira Mancheva ZHELYAZKOVA
1954
Veliko Tarnovo
Bulgarian
Mihail EKIMDZHIEV
Katina BONCHEVA
Milena DOKOVA-KOSTADINOVA
2.
29331/22
Stanoev and Others v. Bulgaria
10/06/2022
Ivan Stoykov STANOEV
1961
Sofia
Bulgarian
Rumyana Trayanova ANGELOVA
1946
Sofia
Bulgarian
Emiliya Kirilova BONEVA
1967
Sofia
Bulgarian
Asen Ignatov GEORGIEV
1964
Sofia
Bulgarian
Ignat Pavlov GEORGIEV
1929
Sofia
Bulgarian
Rositsa Ignatova GEORGIEVA
1956
Sofia
Bulgarian
Goran Ivanov GOCHEV
1967
Sofia
Bulgarian
Biser Stanoychev IVANOV
1965
Sofia
Bulgarian
Rayna Borisova LAMBREVA-PETKOVA
1961
Sofia
Bulgarian
Yordanka Stoyanova MIRKOVA
1944
Sofia
Bulgarian
Georgi Petrov PAUNOV
1934
Sofia
Bulgarian
Georgi Milchev STANOEV
1985
Sofia
Bulgarian
Stoyko Milchev STANOEV
1984
Sofia
Bulgarian
Zorka Kostadinova STANOEVA
1944
Sofia
Bulgarian
Elena Stoyanova TAHMIZYAN
1946
Sofia
Bulgarian
Krasimira Ivanova TODOROVA
1971
Sofia
Bulgarian
Krasimira Stanoycheva TODOROVA
1969
Sofia
Bulgarian
Trayan Asenov TRAYANOV
1966
Sofia
Bulgarian
Lyubka Stoyanova VACHEVA
1951
Sofia
Bulgarian
Dobrina PAVLOVA
3.
30116/23
Chonin and Others v. Bulgaria
20/07/2023
Veselin Arahangelov CHONIN
1953
Sofia
Bulgarian
Mihail Angelov ANGELOV
1951
Sofia
Bulgarian
Krasimira Natsolova BOSILKOVA
1934
Sofia
Bulgarian
Mirela Georgieva FILIPOVA
1976
Sofia
Bulgarian
Stanislava Georgieva FILIPOVA-MARKOVA
1970
Sofia
Bulgarian
Hristo Gueorguiev HRISTOV
1964
Leipzig
Bulgarian, German
Angel Ivaylov MAVRODINOV
1973
Sofia
Belgian, Bulgarian
Bogdan Ivaylov MAVRODINOV
1960
Kardzhali
Bulgarian
Snezhina Natsolova STANKOVICH
1940
Sofia
Bulgarian
Eli Georgieva VUCHKOVA
1966
Sofia
Bulgarian
Mihail EKIMDZHIEV
Katina BONCHEVA
Milena DOKOVA-KOSTADINOVA