CEDH · CASELAW;COMMUNICATEDCASES;ENG — 12 novembre 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 } .s4BAE41EE { font-family:Arial; font-size:11pt } Published on 2 December 2024   FOURTH SECTION Application no. 33249/20 Aurel Cristian TANC against Romania lodged on 24 July 2020 communicated on 12 November 2024 SUBJECT MATTER OF THE CASE The application concerns criminal proceedings instituted against the applicant for fraud, forgery and use of forged documents. Between 2009 and 2010, he assisted and represented before the tax authorities natural and legal persons intending to register imported motor vehicles in Romania. In this context, he prepared the documents for the payment of the pollution taxes based on Emergency Ordinance no. 50/2008, which established the obligation to pay a pollution tax on motor vehicles imported into Romania from other Member States. The sums paid as pollution taxes went into the account of the Environment Fund Office, which joined the criminal proceedings as a civil party. By a final decision of 31 May 2018, the Oradea Court of Appeal found the applicant guilty and ordered him to pay damages to the Environment Fund Office amounting to 325,451 Romanian lei (the equivalent of approximately 70,000 euros), which represented the damages allegedly caused to the tax authorities by forging and using forged documents in order to decrease the amounts paid as pollution taxes by 49 taxpayers. The applicant complains under Article 1 of Protocol No. 1 that the damages he was ordered to pay were unlawful, as Emergency Ordinance no. 50/2008 had been found to be incompatible with the EU law by the Court of Justice of the European Union and subsequently repealed by Emergency Ordinance no. 52/2017, which provides for the full reimbursement of the sums paid by way of the pollution tax on motor vehicles. QUESTIONS TO THE PARTIES 1.     Has there been an interference with the applicant’s peaceful enjoyment of possessions, within the meaning of Article 1 of Protocol No.   1 on account of him being ordered to pay damages to the Environment Fund Office on the basis of legal provisions which were no longer in force?   2.     Has the applicant been deprived of his possessions in accordance with the conditions provided for by law, within the meaning of Article 1 of Protocol No.   1?