Qufaj Co. Sh.P.K v Albania - 54268/00

By judgment of 23/02/1996, the Tirana Court of Appeal sentenced the Municipality of Tirana to pay compensation to the applicant company for losses resulting from the refusal to grant a building permit. However, this judgment was not executed on the grounds that the state allegedly lacked the necessary funds, despite various steps taken by the applicant company. The company therefore brought proceedings before the Constitutional Court, which declared that enforcement proceedings did not fall within its jurisdiction.

The European Court recalled that enforcement of judicial decisions is an integral part of the “trial” for the purposes of Article 6 and that a delay in enforcement may impair the essence of the right to a fair trial (§38 of the judgment).

I. Payment of just satisfaction and individual measures

a) Details of just satisfaction

Pecuniary damage

Non-pecuniary damage

Costs and expenses

Total

Paid on 22/07/2005

The applicant waived his right to default interest.

b) Individual measures

The European Court awarded the applicant just satisfaction in respect of pecuniary and non-pecuniary damages, including the sums at issue in the unenforced decision. Consequently, no other individual measure was considered necessary by the Committee of Ministers.

II. General measures

According to the Albanian authorities, the violation found by the Court in this case results mainly from the lack of funds in the Municipality of Tirana.

Currently, Albanian legislation does not provide any special budget in the state budget dedicated to payment of debts deriving from final domestic judgments against the state. In general terms, state institutions are required to act in accordance with the Council of Ministers’ Decision No. 335 of 14/10/2010 and the Instruction of the Minister of Finances on "Implementation of the annual budget", according to which the execution of judicial decisions lies in principle within the responsibility of the concerned state institution and the amounts to be paid are taken from its approved budget. Public institutions have to foresee, within the limit of their annual budget, the amounts they might be required to pay following a judicial decision.

However, the efforts of the Albanian authorities to ensure the enforcement of final court decisions and create a special budget dedicated to payment of debts deriving from final decision against the state will continue. These questions will be followed in the framework of the pending execution of the Driza group of cases (33771/02) and of the case of Puto (609/07) respectively.

The European Court’s judgment was translated into Albanian and published in the Official Gazette, No. extra of July 2007. By an official letter of 22/11/2004 it was also sent out to the Prime Minister, the President of the High Council of Justice, the President of the Constitutional Court, the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of European Integration and the Tirana Municipality. Moreover, the Government Agent has translated and forwarded it to the Ministry of Justice (General Department of Codification, Bailiffs Office, Commission of Legal Reforms), to the Parliament, the Bar and to civil society.

III. Conclusions of the respondent state

The government considers that no individual measure is required in this case, apart from the payment of the just satisfaction, that the issue of general measures will continue to be followed by the Committee of Ministers in the framework of the cases mentioned above and that Albania has thus complied with its obligations under Article 46, paragraph 1, of the Convention.