NN: MACEDONIA BEFORE THE EUROPEAN COURT OF HUMAN RIGHTS (2)
N: European justice, Macedonian damages
PN: In eleven cases two years ago complainants claimed 10,289,000 Euros for non-material
damages and additional 3,449,919 Euros for material damages. The Court judged that all claims for
material damages were not well-founded, and for non-material damages it awarded only 30,450
Euros.
In 2009 the citizens who had sued Macedonia before the European Court of Human Rights in
Strasbourg claimed over 13 million Euros damages but the Court awarded only 37,680 Euros
including the costs for the procedure.
In eleven cases two years ago complainants claimed 10,289,000 Euros for non-material damages
and additional 3,449,919 Euros for material damages. The Court judged that all claims for material
damages were not well-founded, and for non-material damages awarded only 30,450 Euros.
Analyzing the 2009 data, a few questions are necessarily asked – whether complainants know how
to claim damages from Strasbourg, whether their claims are well-founded or not, whether the search
for justice turns into a desire for getting rich fast or it is about a legitimate seeking compensation for
violated human rights in the state.
We have started our research about whether the violation of human rights costs the state a lot with
an analysis of the so far cases settled in Strasbourg. In part of them no damages were awarded at all
because the applicants had either forgotten to ask for it or they had not submitted evidence for their
request. We asked the lawyer Jordanco Madzunarov from Shtip, one of the most active lawyers
when it is about submitting applications to the court in Strasbourg, whether the awarded amounts
were real or not.
-I can freely say that the damages awarded by the Court are not correct. The amounts that are now
awarded are up to 3,500 Euros. This amount of money is only enough to cover the basic costs for
the procedure. It is an unreal amount as most often the citizens have lost much more. With the
awarded money from Strasbourg they only settle their debts so there is nothing left for them. I have
to notice that they do not award the same amount of money that was awarded in the beginning – he
says.
PN: A PHENOMENON IN SHTIP
The last sentence of the lawyer from Shtip challenged us to find out what amount had been awarded
in the beginning, as he says.
After a few days we managed to get to the case Janeva versus Macedonia from 2002. That is the
second judgment given by the European Court of Human Rights in which Macedonia was sued, but
the first one which ended with a friendly settlement.
To our surprise, the amount that the state paid in this case is the biggest amount paid by the state for
a case in Strasbourg – 77,000 Euros. For comparison, such agreements now most often end with
compensation of just a few thousand Euros.
The case with Janeva, who comes from Shtip, had an incredible impact on how citizens started
looking at the Court in Strasbourg, but also the country, which since then has had a much better
defense strategy, that is for saving money.
During our research we found out an interesting phenomenon – a great percentage of applications
before the European Court of Human Rights are from the citizens of Shtip. In percentage terms, per
capita this small town has most complaints in Strasbourg and it all started eight years ago after
Janeva’s judgment.
Only lawyer Madzunarov has filed over 25 complaints against the state before the European Court
of Human Rights.
According to the former judge in this court, Margarita Caca Nikolovska, the case with Janeva
increased the interest in the European Court of Human Rights of all citizens.
-In this judgment, which ended with friendly settlement, a bigger amount was accepted for the first
time. It is important to point out that the state was the one which accepted this amount and I do not
want to go into details about the reason. After this the citizens probably believed that everyone
would get the same amount. Then there was disappointment with the judgments, it was subjective
as everyone thought they would get the same amount of money – explains Nikolovska.
At great number of seminars the judge has explained that it was a special case and not everyone
who complains about the length of the procedure can expect to receive the same amount of money.
MN: GREECE THE BIGGEST LOSER
According to the judge Margarita Caca Nikolovska, Strasbourg judgments also depend on the
power of the country – in economic terms.
When awarding the amount of the damages, the economic condition of the country must be taken
into consideration. It cannot be expected that for one case the whole public purse to be emptied in
order to settle one person, and all the other citizens to suffer – she says.
After this we tried to find out what the conditions in our neighborhood were – how much Strasbourg
awarded the citizens in our neighboring countries.
The statistics shows that with the judgments by the European Court of Human Rights, Macedonia is
awarded with 3,000 Euros on average. The average of the amounts is almost equal to the one in
Serbia and lower than the one in Bosnia (39,233 Euros), Croatia (11,003 Euros) and Slovenia(6,350
Euros).
We also contacted the authorities in the European Court of Human Rights to get information about
the awarded damages.
- The case in which the biggest amount was awarded along with legal satisfaction is the case Stratis
Andereadis and Stran Greek Refinery versus Greece. 116,273,442 drachmas or USD 16,054,165
and 614,627 French francs were awarded for material damages plus interest of 6 per cent from 27th
February 1984 to the date of the judgment. 125,000 pounds was awarded for procedure costs – they
say in the court in Strasbourg.
In the cases with Macedonia in 2009, apart from the awarded damages and costs for the judgments,
the state is to pay additional 96,226 Euros awarded with friendly settlements and unilateral
declarations.
FRAME:
250 Euros for an application
The amounts paid to the lawyers in the country for compiling an application to sue the country
before the court in Strasbourg are various. The normal amount is about 250 Euros, but some charge
even ten times bigger amounts, that is about the amount that the citizens might receive if the court
accepts their complaint.
In the course of 2009 in 11 cases the citizens required 51,994 Euros for costs for representation
before the court, but were given only 7,230.