Published on 17 July 2023

THIRD SECTION

Applications nos. 34513/20 and 35477/20 Zlatka Foteva TODOROVA and Nikola Fotev CHAKAROV against Bulgaria and Ekaterina Ivanova TODOROVA against Bulgaria lodged on 3 August 2020 and 10 August 2020 respectively communicated on 30 June 2023

SUBJECT MATTER OF THE CASE

The applications concern the duration of restitution proceedings under the Agricultural Land Act – complaints of the type examined in, among others, Lyubomir Popov v. Bulgaria (no. 69855/01, 7 January 2010) and Zikatanova and Others v. Bulgaria (no. 45806/11, 12 December 2019).

In application no. 34513/20 the applicants’ entitlement to the restitution of 6,490 square metres of land in the vicinity of Varna was acknowledged in 1998. However, as the land was situated in an area where third parties had bought parts of formerly nationalised land, and roads had been constructed, it remained to be determined which portions of the applicants’ land were subject to restitution in kind, and for which the applicants were to receive compensation. For this purpose the authorities were to prepare a so-called “plan of the newly-created plots”, delimitating the property rights of all interested parties in the area. By the time of the lodging of the application in 2020, such plan had not yet entered into force.

In application no. 35477/20, in a decision of 1997 the competent State body held that the applicant’s mother (succeeded eventually by the applicant) was to receive compensation for 16,666 square metres of land in Sofia, which had been constructed upon after the nationalization and was not subject to restitution in kind. The applicant had not yet received the compensation due, through other comparable land or compensation bonds, by the time of the lodging of the application in 2020. When enquiring, she was told by the competent bodies that the delays were due to difficulties in collecting and processing data concerning people entitled to similar compensation on the territory of the Sofia Municipality, as well as in identifying available State- and municipally-owned land to be provided in compensation to the former owners.

The applicants complain under Article 1 of Protocol No. 1 of the excessive duration of the restitution procedure, and under Article 13 of the Convention of the unavailability of effective domestic remedies in that regard.

QUESTIONS TO THE PARTIES

1. 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, Naydenov v. Bulgaria , no. 17353/03, 26 November 2009, and Zikatanova and Others v. Bulgaria , no. 45806/11, 12 December 2019)?

2. Do the applicants have at their disposal an effective domestic remedy for their complaint under Article 1 of Protocol No. 1, as required by Article 13 of the Convention?

APPENDIX

List of cases:

No.

Application no.

Case name

Lodged on

Applicant Year of Birth Place of Residence Nationality

Represented by

1.

34513/20

Todorova and Chakarov v. Bulgaria

03/08/2020

Zlatka Foteva TODOROVA 1941 Varna Bulgarian Nikola Fotev CHAKAROV 1940 Varna Bulgarian

Mihail Tiholov EKIMDZHIEV

2.

35477/20

Todorova v. Bulgaria

10/08/2020

Ekaterina Ivanova TODOROVA 1971 Sofia Bulgarian

Mihail Tiholov EKIMDZHIEV