Resolution CM/ResDH(2008) 66 [1]

Execution of the judgments of the European Court of Human Rights

Logothetis and Vasilopoulou against Greece

(see details in Appendix)

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 both cases concern the state ' s refusal to comply with certain judgments of the Court of Audit granting the applicants a supplementary pension (violations of Article 6, paragraph 1, of the Convention) and that the Vasilopoulou case also concerns a violation of the applicant ' s right to peaceful enjoyment of his 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 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, within the time-limit set, 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 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(2008)66

Information about the measures taken to comply with the judgments in the cases of Logothetis and Vasilopoulou against Greece

Introductory case summary

These cases concern the state ' s refusal to comply with certain judgments of the Court of Audit delivered in 1996 and 1997, granting the applicants (the first a retired judge and the second the widow of a retired judge) a supplementary pension and declaring unconstitutional Article 3 of Law 2512/1997. According to this provision, any such claim was statute-barred and any pending judicial proceedings were set aside (violations of Article 6§1).

In the Vasilopoulou case, the European Court found in addition that the Court of Audit ' s judgment had created an established right to payment in the applicant ' s favour and that the belated adoption in 2000 of the ministerial decision providing for payment of supplementary pensions by instalments without interest in the form of state bonds upset the fair balance between the protection of the applicant ' s right to property and the requirements of the general interest (violation of Article 1 of Protocol No. 1).

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

Logothetis,

judgment of 12/04/2001, final on 12/07/2001 and judgment of 18/04/2002 (article 41),

final on 18/07/2002

(46352/99)

32 320 EUR

2 935 EUR

1 468 EUR

36 723 EUR

07/10/2002

Vasilopoulou

judgment of 21/03/2002, final on 21/06/2002 and judgment of 26/09/2002 (article 41), final on 21/05/2003

( 47541/99)    

7 161 EUR

2 935 EUR

-

13/08/2003

b) Individual measures

The European Court awarded the applicants just satisfaction in respect of pecuniary damage in an amount covering the unpaid amounts awarded by the Court of Audit, with interest.

II. General measures

Article 3 of Law 2512/1997 was only applicable to cases pending before administrative or judicial authorities at the moment it entered into force. Thus, it never applied to other cases opened after it entered into force. Moreover, Article 3 of Law 2512/1997 is no longer applied by administrative courts, following three judgments of the Council of State (Nos 828/2003, 996/2003 and 2959/2003), which found that paragraph 1 of Article 3 is not interpretative of Article 2 of Law 2320/1995 (an earlier Law relating to the calculation of state pensions) and, as a consequence, the other provisions of Article 3 which provided that the claims were statute-barred and that related proceedings are thus discontinued.

As regards the issue of non-compliance by the administration with judicial decisions, Greece has adopted comprehensive constitutional and legislative measures to ensure the administration ' s compliance with domestic judicial decisions (see Final Resolution ResDH(2004)81 in the Hornsby and other cases).

In addition, special emphasis was placed by the European Court in the present cases on the problem of legislative interference with the judiciary. In this respect, these cases present 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 ' s site : www.dsa.gr ), the Court of Cassation, in another case raising the issue of legislative interference with the judiciary, has confirmed anew the direct effect given in Greek law to Articles 6, paragraph 1 and 1 of Protocol No. 1 to the Convention and set aside the relevant legislation.

Finally, the Court ' s judgments were promptly translated and sent out to all competent administrative and judicial authorities and were published on the site of the State Legal Council ( www.nsk.gr ).

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 these cases, 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 25 June 2008 at the 1028th meeting of the Ministers’ Deputies