FIFTH SECTION

DECISION

Application no. 49925/11 Ivan Trifonov STANCHEV and O thers against Bulgaria

The European Court of Human Rights (Fifth Section), sitting on 23 October 2018 as a Committee composed of:

Síofra O ’ Leary, President, Lәtif Hüseynov , Lado Chanturia , judges,

and Claudia Westerdiek , Section Registrar ,

Having regard to the above application lodged on 27 July 2011,

Having regard to the formal declarations accepting a friendly settlement of the case,

Having deliberated, decides as follows:

FACTS AND PROCEDURE

A list of the applicants ’ names and years of birth is set out in the appendix. All applicants are Bulgarian nationals, who live in the village of Markovo , Plovdiv region. They were represented before the Court by Mr M. Ekimdzhiev and Ms G. Chernicherska , lawyers practicing in Plovdiv.

The Bulgarian Government (“the Government”) were represented by their Agent, Ms R. Nikolova , of the Ministry of Justice.

The applicants complained under Article 1 of Protocol No. 1 and Article 13 of the Convention of the excessive duration of a restitution procedure and the lack of effective domestic remedies in that regard.

On 10 September 2018 and 4 June 2018 the Court received friendly settlement declarations signed by the parties, under which the applicants agreed to waive any further claims against Bulgaria in respect of the facts giving rise to this application, against an undertaking by the Government to pay them 7,500 euros, to be distributed among them in accordance with their inheritance rights, to cover any pecuniary and non-pecuniary damage as well as costs and expenses. To that sum should be added any tax that may be chargeable to the applicants. The sum, which will be converted into Bulgarian levs at the rate applicable on the date of payment, will be payable within three months from the date of notification of the decision taken by the Court. In the event of failure to pay this sum within the said three-month period, the Government is to pay simple interest on it, from the expiry of that period until settlement, at a rate equal to the marginal lending rate of the European Central Bank during the default period plus three percentage points.

The parties agreed that such payment would constitute the final resolution of the case.

THE LAW

The Court takes note of the friendly settlement reached between the parties. It is satisfied that the settlement is based on respect for human rights as defined in the Convention and its Protocols and finds no reasons to justify a continued examination of the application. In view of the above, it is appropriate to strike the case out of the list.

For these reasons, the Court, unanimously,

Decides to strike the application out of its list of cases in accordance with Article 39 of the Convention.

Done in English and notified in writing on 22 November 2018 .

Claudia Westerdiek Síofra O ’ Leary Registrar President

Appendix