CEDH · CASELAW;COMMUNICATEDCASES;ENG — 21 mai 2024

.s800EAC49 { font-size:12pt } .s379BC09C { margin-top:36pt; margin-bottom:0pt; text-align:right } .sBB9EE52A { font-family:Arial } .s10950C61 { margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt; text-indent:14.2pt; text-align:justify } .s5E1364CA { margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:12pt; text-align:center; page-break-inside:avoid; page-break-after:avoid; font-size:14pt } .s339D85E6 { margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:14pt; text-align:center; page-break-inside:avoid; page-break-after:avoid } .s665E407E { margin-top:66pt; margin-bottom:14pt; text-align:center; page-break-inside:avoid; page-break-after:avoid } .s29100277 { font-family:Arial; font-weight:bold } .sA36B60A1 { font-family:Arial; font-style:italic } .sD37F5C3B { margin-top:66pt; margin-bottom:0pt; page-break-inside:avoid; page-break-after:avoid; font-size:7pt } .s5FFF0A75 { margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt; font-size:7pt } .s75A32C27 { border-collapse:collapse } .s3695F815 { border:0.75pt solid #949494; padding:1.02pt 5.03pt; vertical-align:top; background-color:#dfdfdf } .s2E932ED2 { margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt; font-size:11pt } .sEECE831 { font-family:Arial; font-weight:bold; color:#474747 } .sE8934522 { border:0.75pt solid #949494; padding:1.02pt 5.03pt; vertical-align:top } Published on 10 June 2024   THIRD SECTION Application no. 42737/21 Tinka Rusinova NIKOLOVA and Others against Bulgaria and 2 other applications (see list appended) communicated on 21 May 2024 SUBJECT MATTER OF THE CASE The applications concern the duration of restitution proceedings under the Agricultural Land Act and the Forests Restitution Act. In application no. 42737/21, the applicants are among the heirs, with a three-fifths share, of R.D., who previously owned agricultural land. After the adoption of the Agricultural Land Act providing for the restitution of such land, in a decision of 18 May 1998 the competent State body recognised the heirs’ entitlement to restitution. The land claimed by them was however situated in an area where the State had allotted small plots to third parties, and in 2009 the authorities adopted a so-called plan of the newly created plots concerning that area which delimitated the parts acquired by third parties, the land which could be returned to the former owners, and the land taken by roads and other infrastructure. In the applicants’ case, the land taken by roads totalled 1,193 square metres, and the applicants were entitled to receive compensation for it. However, it appears that by the time of the applicants’ latest letter to the Court received in April 2024, no such compensation had yet been allotted to them, nor had any decision of the relevant State body setting the value or type of compensation been taken. In application no. 29331/22, in three decisions dated 16 December 1996, 21 March 2007 and 8 October 2010 the competent State body acknowledged the applicants’ entitlement to compensation in lieu of the restitution in kind of 41,700 square metres of agricultural land previously owned by an ancestor of theirs. The applicant expressed a preference to receive other comparable land in compensation. Their land is situated in Sofia, where the compensation procedure concerning former owners of agricultural land has not yet been completed, due to difficulties in identifying appropriate land, seeing the development of the city in the meantime, and to the need to accommodate the needs of different interested parties. Lastly, application no. 30116/23 concerns a restitution procedure already discussed in Popov and Chonin v. Bulgaria (no. 36094/08, 17 February 2015), where the Court examined the complaints of one of the applicants in the present case. In a decision of 12 December 2000 the competent State body recognised to the heirs of M.F. (the applicants’ shares total about four-fifths of the inheritance) the entitlement to receive compensation in lieu of the restitution in kind of 933,800 square metres of forestry land. Under the applicable Forests Restitution Act, the compensation can only be through equivalent State-owned land, and in the following years different State bodies attempted to identify plots of sufficient size and with forests of the required quality to offer in compensation. Several decisions taken in 2013 and 2018, but becoming final in 2023, allotted to the applicants plots of forestry land totalling about 413,000 square metres. The procedure has not yet been completed with regard to the remainder of the land due. The applicants complain under Article 1 of Protocol No. 1 that the restitution procedures in their cases were overly lengthy.   QUESTION TO THE PARTIES 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, Popov and Chonin v. Bulgaria , no.   36094/08, 17   February 2015; Zikatanova and Others v. Bulgaria , no.   45806/11, 12   December 2019; Sheytanova v. Bulgaria [Committee], no.   42218/13, 1   September 2020; Gechevi v. Bulgaria [Committee], no.   54909/14, 22   June 2021)?       APPENDIX No. Application no. Case name Lodged on Applicant Year of Birth Place of Residence Nationality Represented by 1. 42737/21 Nikolova and Others v. Bulgaria 26/02/2021 Tinka Rusinova NIKOLOVA 1935 Veilko Tarnovo Bulgarian Rozin Stefanov MILEV 1957 Veliko Tarnovo Bulgarian Byala Damyanova MILEVA 1938 Vaglevtsi Bulgarian Krasimira Mancheva ZHELYAZKOVA 1954 Veliko Tarnovo Bulgarian Mihail EKIMDZHIEV Katina BONCHEVA Milena DOKOVA-KOSTADINOVA 2. 29331/22 Stanoev and Others v. Bulgaria 10/06/2022 Ivan Stoykov STANOEV 1961 Sofia Bulgarian Rumyana Trayanova ANGELOVA 1946 Sofia Bulgarian Emiliya Kirilova BONEVA 1967 Sofia Bulgarian Asen Ignatov GEORGIEV 1964 Sofia Bulgarian Ignat Pavlov GEORGIEV 1929 Sofia Bulgarian Rositsa Ignatova GEORGIEVA 1956 Sofia Bulgarian Goran Ivanov GOCHEV 1967 Sofia Bulgarian Biser Stanoychev IVANOV 1965 Sofia Bulgarian Rayna Borisova LAMBREVA-PETKOVA 1961 Sofia Bulgarian Yordanka Stoyanova MIRKOVA 1944 Sofia Bulgarian Georgi Petrov PAUNOV 1934 Sofia Bulgarian Georgi Milchev STANOEV 1985 Sofia Bulgarian Stoyko Milchev STANOEV 1984 Sofia Bulgarian Zorka Kostadinova STANOEVA 1944 Sofia Bulgarian Elena Stoyanova TAHMIZYAN 1946 Sofia Bulgarian Krasimira Ivanova TODOROVA 1971 Sofia Bulgarian Krasimira Stanoycheva TODOROVA 1969 Sofia Bulgarian Trayan Asenov TRAYANOV 1966 Sofia Bulgarian Lyubka Stoyanova VACHEVA 1951 Sofia Bulgarian Dobrina PAVLOVA 3. 30116/23 Chonin and Others v. Bulgaria 20/07/2023 Veselin Arahangelov CHONIN 1953 Sofia Bulgarian Mihail Angelov ANGELOV 1951 Sofia Bulgarian Krasimira Natsolova BOSILKOVA 1934 Sofia Bulgarian Mirela Georgieva FILIPOVA 1976 Sofia Bulgarian Stanislava Georgieva FILIPOVA-MARKOVA 1970 Sofia Bulgarian Hristo Gueorguiev HRISTOV 1964 Leipzig Bulgarian, German Angel Ivaylov MAVRODINOV 1973 Sofia Belgian, Bulgarian Bogdan Ivaylov MAVRODINOV 1960 Kardzhali Bulgarian Snezhina Natsolova STANKOVICH 1940 Sofia Bulgarian Eli Georgieva VUCHKOVA 1966 Sofia Bulgarian Mihail EKIMDZHIEV Katina BONCHEVA Milena DOKOVA-KOSTADINOVA