Communicated on 7 September 2020 Published on 2 8 September 2020

FIRST SECTION

Applications nos. 13923/18 and 29438/18 Goran TOZIJA against North Macedonia and Rumen KJAMILOV against North Macedonia lodged on 17 March 2018 and 14 June 2018 respectively

SUBJECT MATTER OF THE CASE

The applications concern the failure to enforce final and enforceable judgments in favour of the applicants adopted between 2003 and 2011, against V., a State-run institution in the field of culture, which ceased to exist in 2013 by virtue of a Government ’ s decision based on the Institutions Act. The applicants ’ claims against V. had been validly registered in the subsequent liquidation proceedings, completed in 2013, but since V. had no assets, the applicants could not secure payment of their claims. Following the completion of the liquidation proceedings of V., in 2014 the applicants claimed that the State honoured their claims regarding V. Their claim was based on the Institutions Act which provided for unlimited liability of the founder for the debts of a State institution that had ceased to exist. The domestic courts dismissed the applicants ’ claims finding that their case was to be decided on the basis of the Culture Act, as the lex specialis , which, after its 2012 amendments, no longer provided for such liability of the State as the founder of V .

QUESTIONS TO THE PARTIES

1. Have the applicants complied with the six-month rule under Article 35 § 1 of the Convention in respect of their complaints under Article 6 and/or Article 1 of Protocol No. 1 concerning the failure to enforce final and enforceable judgments in their favour (see Sokolov and Others v. Serbia ( dec. ), nos. 30859/10 et al., §§ 28-32, 14 January 2014)? In this connection, was the civil claim instituted in 2014 against the State an effective remedy that the applicants were required to exhaust in respect to their claim against V.?

2. Has there been a breach of Article 6 o f the Convention and/or Article 1 of Protocol No. 1 to the Convention? In particular, does the failure to enforce final and enforceable judgments in the applicants ’ favour amount to a violation of one or both of these provisions (see Mykhaylenky and Others v. Ukraine , nos. 35091/02 and 9 others, ECHR 2004 ‑ XII; R. Kačapor and Others v. Serbia , nos. 2269/06 and 5 others, 15 January 2008; Burdov v. Russia (no. 2) , no. 33509/04, ECHR 2009; Liseytseva and Maslov v. Russia , nos. 39483/05 and 40527/10, 9 October 2014?

APPENDIX

Application no 13923/18

No.

Applicant ’ s Name

Birth year

Nationality

Place of residence

1Goran TOZIJA

1954Macedonian/ citizen of the Republic

of North Macedonia

Skopje

Application no 29438/18

No.

Applicant ’ s Name

Birth year

Nationality

Place of residence

1Rumen KJAMILOV

1946Macedonian/ citizen of the Republic

of North Macedonia

Skopje