Bulgaria is first in Europe, as far as the suits, filed versus the state at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg are concerned. Of course the amount of lawsuits, compared to the population are taken into consideration and not their total number. Most of the cases are grounded on excessive duration of the trials, police brutality and restitution claims.
This fact confirms the criticisms of the EC towards Bulgaria for the malfunction of the judiciary system. At the same time, after years of increasing of lawsuits against Bulgaria in Strasbourg, there is a holding tendency recently, which is accepted as a sign for positive changes in the state’s judiciary system. There were less than 100 suits, filed in 2009, 61 one of them were won and Bulgaria had to pay the claimants a total sum of EUR 1.5 mln.
The percentage of lawsuits, voluntarily arranged between the Bulgarian state and the claimants has increased, experts say. These were mainly cases with undisputable facts or when the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms had been violated systematically. The court offered then to both sides a fair sum for compensation. This happened most often during the 90s in cases of excessive duration of court trials. The average compensation sum that Bulgaria had to pay for a delay of a court trial was EUR 3000-4000. The money was determined as a percentage from the state’s GDP.
There are also other techniques for reaching an agreement. However, when the claims of the citizens or the companies are too expensive, the magistrates have to lead a case. In certain cases they have adjudged up to EUR 300 000 compensations from Bulgaria. They are given most often to restitution victims or for covering great damages of foreign companies, some sources say.
18 years after the ratification of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, there have been over 6500 complaints, filed in Strasbourg, judiciary registers say. However, almost 90% of them didn’t respond to the requirements and were pronounced inadmissible. Moreover, for these 18 years the Bulgarian citizens and companies have obtained a better knowledge of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms that determines the competence of the court in Strasbourg.
The European Council makes the necessary recommendations towards Bulgaria for improvement of the judiciary system after the observations of the judgmental decisions. “One of the recommendations for instance was the rejection of rally admissions to be able to be appealed before court. It was made after judgmental decisions in Strasbourg on a lawsuit, filed by OMO “Ilinden” party. We took into consideration the recommendations and altered the Law for assemblies, meetings and strikes”, Deputy Minister of Justice Daniela Masheva says to the press.
Different non-governmental organizations also offer changes in the legislation because of the millions that the state pays every year on Strasbourg cases. Thus the guilty magistrates and clerks will have to bear their responsibility for the decisions, which have resulted in Strasbourg lawsuits. “That is how the state will get back at least a part of the money it has paid for compensations” representatives of these non-governmental organizations say.
Despite being a last instance for a fair trial for the Europeans, the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg indirectly turns out to be an instrument for improvement of the national judiciary systems, especially those of the new member-states, such as Bulgaria.
English translation: Zhivko Stanchev
