CEDH · PRESS;HEARINGS;ENG — 23 octobre 2002

.s800EAC49 { font-size:12pt } .s5FFF0A77 { margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt; font-size:1pt } .sBB9EE52A { font-family:Arial } .sFE10DC93 { margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt; text-align:center } .s29100277 { font-family:Arial; font-weight:bold } .s32563E28 { margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt } .s94935B0F { width:389.85pt; display:inline-block } .sA36B60A1 { font-family:Arial; font-style:italic } .s7ED160F0 { text-decoration:none } .s33165EBA { font-family:Arial; font-size:8pt; vertical-align:super; color:#0069d6 } .sCB9E0544 { margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt; text-align:left } .s4DDA3AA3 { font-family:Arial; font-weight:bold; font-style:italic } .s67C903A { width:13.93pt; display:inline-block } .sE758774E { margin-top:0pt; margin-left:70.9pt; margin-bottom:0pt; text-indent:-70.9pt; text-align:left } .sB54F21D0 { width:1.54pt; text-indent:0pt; display:inline-block } .s988B4253 { width:1.1pt; text-indent:0pt; display:inline-block } .sBF0FE613 { width:36pt; text-indent:0pt; display:inline-block } .s1CA886F1 { margin-top:0pt; margin-left:85.05pt; margin-bottom:0pt; text-indent:-85.05pt; text-align:left } .sBF401EEE { width:32.35pt; text-indent:0pt; display:inline-block } .sE926D4E4 { width:22.95pt; text-indent:0pt; display:inline-block } .s3964C3A3 { width:1.36pt; display:inline-block } .s901C2590 { width:56.7pt; display:inline-block } .sF6A12959 { width:33%; height:1px; text-align:left } .s2EB42ED2 { margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt; font-size:10pt } .s653E6C45 { font-family:Arial; font-size:6.67pt; vertical-align:super; color:#0069d6 } .s3133A7C8 { font-family:Arial; color:#0069d6 }   EUROPEAN COURT OF HUMAN RIGHTS     522   23.10.2002   Press release issued by the Registrar   GRAND CHAMBER HEARING ON THE ADMISSIBILITY AND MERITS IN THE CASE OF BRONIOWSKI v. POLAND   Wednesday 23 October 2002 at 9.00 a.m.   The applicant   The case concerns an application (no. 31443/96) brought by Jerzy Broniowski, a Polish national born in 1944 and living in Wieliczka (Poland).   Summary of the facts   The case concerns the alleged failure to satisfy the applicant’s entitlement to compensation for property (a house and land) in Lwów (now Lviv, in the Ukraine) which belonged to his grandmother when the area was still part of Poland, before the Second World War. That entitlement was first bequeathed to the applicant’s mother and, after her death in 1989, to the applicant.   The applicant’s grandmother along with many others who had been living in the Eastern provinces of pre-war Poland (which included large areas of present-day Belarus, Ukraine and territories around Vilnius in what is now Lithuania) was repatriated after Poland’s eastern border had been redrawn along the Bug River (whose central course formed part of the Curzon line), in the aftermath of the Second World War. The area was known as the “Borderlands” (“ Kresy” ) and also, “territories beyond the Bug River” ( “ziemie zabużańskie” ).   Following the so-called “republican agreements” between the Polish Committee of National Liberation and former Soviet Republics of Lithuania, Belarus and Ukraine, Poland undertook to compensate those who had been “repatriated” from the “territories beyond the Bug River” and had had to abandon their properties. From 1944 to 1953 around 1,750,000 people were “repatriated” under the provisions of the republican agreements.   Since 1946 Polish law has entitled those repatriated in such circumstances to compensation in kind; they have been entitled to buy land from the State and have the value of the abandoned property deducted either from the fee for the so-called “perpetual use” of this land or from the price of the compensatory property or land.   However, since the entry into force of the Local Government Act of 10 May 1990, local administration, while still obliged to meet these compensation claims, has had insufficient land to meet the various demands.   The applicant, along with around 90,000 [1] others entitled to compensatory property, has not yet received compensation for the property abandoned by his grandmother - valued at 1,949,560 old Polish zlotys. According to the applicant, he has received only approximately 4% of its value (ie. of the compensation due to him) in the form of the right of perpetual use of a small building plot which his mother bought from the State in 1981.   Complaint   He relies on Article 1 of Protocol No.1 (protection of property) of the European Convention on Human Rights.   Procedure   The application was lodged with the European Commission of Human Rights on 12 March 1996 and transmitted to the Court on 1 November 1998. On 26 March 2002 the Chamber decided unanimously to relinquish jurisdiction in favour of the Grand Chamber.   Composition of the Court   The case will be heard by the Grand Chamber composed as follows:   Luzius Wildhaber (Swiss), President , Christos Rozakis (Greek), Jean-Paul Costa (French), Georg Ress (German), Nicolas Bratza (British), Antonio Pastor Ridruejo (Spanish), Elisabeth Palm (Swedish), Lucius Caflisch [2] (Swiss), Viera Strážnická (Slovakian), Volodymyr Butkevych (Ukrainian), Boštjan Zupančič (Slovenian), Matti Pellonpää (Finnish), Margarita Tsatsa-Nikolovska (FYROMacedonia), Rait Maruste (Estonian), Snejana Botoucharova (Bulgarian), Stanislav Pavlovschi (Moldovan), Lech Garlicki (Polish), judges ,   Giovanni Bonello (Maltese), András Baka (Hungarian), John Hedigan (Irish), substitute judges , and also Paul Mahoney , Registrar .         Representatives of the parties   Government:       Krzysztof Drzewicki , Agent , Renata Kowalska , Counsel , Małgorzata Kosicka , Teresa Bielska , Danuta Błaszczyk , Kamil Zaradkiewicz , Advisers ;   Applicant:     Zbigniew Cichoń , Wojciech Hermeliński , Counsel .     Jerzy Broniowski will also attend the hearing.   ***   After the hearing the Court will begin its deliberations, which are held in private. A decision on admissibility will be delivered at a later date.   Registry of the European Court of Human Rights F – 67075 Strasbourg Cedex Contacts:   Roderick Liddell (telephone: +00 33 (0)3 88 41 24 92)   Emma Hellyer (telephone: +00 33 (0)3 90 21 42 15)   Stéphanie Klein (telephone: +00 33 (0)3 88 41 21 54) Fax: +00 33 (0)3 88 41 27 91   The European Court of Human Rights was set up in Strasbourg in 1959 to deal with alleged violations of the 1950 European Convention on Human Rights. On 1 November 1998 a full-time Court was established, replacing the original two-tier system of a part-time Commission and Court. [1] As estimated by the Polish Ministry for the Treasury; reported in “Rzeczpospolita” on 13 December 2001 (“ Zabużanie idą do sądu ”) and 15 May 2002 (“ Zaświadczenia niczym czeki bez pokrycia ”). [2] .     Judge elected in respect of Liechtenstein.