Communication from Serbia concerning the case of Ališić and Others against Serbia (Application No /08) * * * * * * * * * * *

Transcription

1 SECRETARIAT GENERAL SECRETARIAT OF THE COMMITTEE OF MINISTERS SECRETARIAT DU COMITE DES MINISTRES Contact: Clare OVEY Tel: DH-DD(2015)397 Date: 10/04/2015 Documents distributed at the request of a Representative shall be under the sole responsibility of the said Representative, without prejudice to the legal or political position of the Committee of Ministers. Meeting: 1230 meeting (9-11 June 2015) (DH) Item reference: Updated action plan (09/04/2015) Communication from Serbia concerning the case of Ališić and Others against Serbia (Application No /08) * * * * * * * * * * * Les documents distribués à la demande d un/e Représentant/e le sont sous la seule responsabilité dudit/de ladite Représentant/e, sans préjuger de la position juridique ou politique du Comité des Ministres. Réunion : Référence du point : 1230 réunion (9-11 juin 2015) (DH) Plan d action mis à jour Communication de la Serbie concernant l affaire Ališić et autres contre Serbie (Requête n 60642/08) (anglais uniquement)

2 DIRECTORA TE GENERAL OF HU MAN RIGHTS AND LEGAL AFF AIRS DEPARTMENT FOR THE EXECUTION OF JUDGMENTS OF THE EUROPEAN COURT OF HUMAN RIGHTS Re: AliSié and Other Applicants versus Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Serbia, Slovenia and FYR Macedonia, final on 16 July 2014 r G AVR ACTION PLAN Introduction SERVICE DE L'EXECUTION DES ARRETS DE LA CEDH The settlement of liabilities on the grounds of the "old" foreign currency savings of citizens was regulated in the Republic of Serbia by the Law on Settlement of Liabilities on the Grounds of Foreign Currency Savings of Citizens (the Official Gazette of FRY, nos. 59/98, 44/99 and 53/2001), which was in force from 12 December 1998 to 4 July 2002, when the Law on Settlement of the Public Debt of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Based on Foreign Currency Savings of Citizens entered into force (the Official Gazette of FRY, no. 36/2002 and the Official Gazette ofrs, nos. 80/2004 and 101/2005). In accordance with the provisions of this Law, foreign currency savings deposited by citizens on the foreign currency accounts and foreign currency savings books until 18 March 1995 with the authorized banks in the territory of the FRY, became the public debt of the FRY, namely the debt of the Republic of Serbia and the Republic of Montenegro - proportionally to the amounts of foreign currency savings of citizens having residence in the territories of these two republics. The liabilities on these grounds are settled by the Republic of Serbia from the funds allocated in the budget of Republic of Serbia, according to the schedule prescribed by law. At the time of adoption of this Law it was also supported by the International Monetary Fund, recommending that the annual amount of payment of savings should not exceed 0.9%, namely 1 % of gross domestic product. Article 3 of this Law prescribes that the public debt of the FR Y became a liability, namely the debt of the Republic of Serbia and the Republic of Montenegro - proportionally to the amount of foreign currency savings of citizens having residence in the territories of these two republics. In order to settle its liabilities on these grounds, the Republic of Serbia issued electronic bonds on 19 August 2002 for citizens who had residence in the territory of the Republic of Serbia on 4 July 2002, which are registered on the accounts of holders of securities at the Central Registry, Depositary and Clearing of Securities, Belgrade. These bonds are issued on the name of the holder in euros and are due for payment within the period from 2002 to As regards the citizens of the former republics of the SFRY the provisions of Article 21 paragraph 1 of this Law prescribe the following:,,the citizem of the former republics of the SFRY, which are not in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, who had deposited their foreign currency savings wilh the authorized banks with the seat in the territory of the FRY, as well as the citizens of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia tvho had deposited their savings with the banks located in the territ01y of the former republics of the SFRY until the moment of separation of those republics - accomplish their claims on the grounds offoreign

3 currency savings in the manner to be contracted with the successor states of the SFRY." Taking into account these provisions the European court concluded that the savings of citizens of the SFRY successor States other than Serbia deposited in ail branches of Serbian ban.ks, both domestic and foreign, as well as the savings of Serbian citizens in Serbian ban.ks' branches located outside Serbia were to remain frozen pending succession negotiations. lt could be concluded that pursuant to the judgment of the European Court, the obligation of the Republic of Serbia includes,,old" foreign cunency savings deposited with the banks with the seats in the Republic of Serbia. lt means that the obligation concemed relates to the settlernent of,,old" foreign currency savings deposited with the branch offices of Serbian banks in the former republics of SFRY, as well as to the savings of citizens of the former republics of SFR Y deposited with such banks in the terri tory of the Republic of Serbia. General measures By itsjudgement of 16 July 2014 the European Court ofhuman Rights obliged the Republic of Serbia and the Republic of Slovenia to pay "old" foreign currency savings to the applicants (E. Alisié, A. Sadfak and S. Sahdanovié), who were savcrs of Ljubljanska banka Sarajevo and Investbanka PJ Tuzla, under the san1e conditions as other savers who had such savings with domestic branch offices of Serbian and Slovenian banks. According to the judgement, the Republic of Serbia must undertake all necessary measures, also including legislative amendments, within the period of one year from the judgement date, i. e. until 16 July 2015, in order to cnable the applicant and all others under the same circumstances to regain their "old" foreign currency savings. By the decision of the Govemment of the Republic of Serbia of 11 December 2014, a multi-sector Working group was established for the execution of this judgement, namely the general measures ordered by the European Court. Taking into account the applicable legal solutions related to servicing of "old" foreign currency savings deposited with the banks in the Republic of Serbia and the order of the European Court, the Working group concluded that for the servicing of the savings at issue it was necessary to govem the below stated issues by the relevant regulations: - The amount of debt, namely the liabilities of the Republic of Serbia (hereinafter referred to as: "RS") based on the above mentioned foreign currency savings according to the principle of the highest possibility liability of RS; - The method, conditions and procedure of servicing of RS liabilities based on foreign currency savings at the branch offices of Serbian banks in the territory of former SFRY republics and savings of citizens from the former republics deposited with the banks in RS; - The definition of liability settlemcnt schedule towards foreign currcncy savers (payment period), commencement of payment (first instalment maturity date), amount of semi-annual instalments;

4 - The amount of interest/interest rate at annual level, periods of application of such rates in the process of total debt establishment, i. e. establishment of individual rights of savers; - The method of settlement of liabilities of RS - issuance of securities - nonpecuniary bonds in euros; - The procedure of establishment of individual rights of forcign currency savers; - The appointment of bank/banks to service savings of bank.s under bankruptcy /liquidation, i.e. banks the savings had been deposited with. Amount of debt The total debt of the RS based on the above mentioned savings, has been asscssed (taking into account the principle of maximum possible liability of the Republic of Serbia) to be 310 million euros, according to the data available from the Deposit Insurance Agency and the National Bank of Serbia (reports of bank.s). This debt is to include foreign currency savings of branch offices of Serbian banks in the former republics of SFRY, unpaid foreign currency savings deposited with the main branch offices of Jugobank.a a.d. Beograd (now undcr bankruptcy), which operated in the Republic of Croatia, assessed amount of savings of citizens of the former republics dcpositcd with the banks in the terri tory of Serbia, as well as the amounts of interests calculated according to prescribed interest rates, for the relevant periods. Metbod of paymcnt After reviewing various effects of budget burdens in the forthcoming period, it is assessed that liabilities towards foreign currency savers could be settled in 10 equal semi-annual instalments on 30 November and 31 May, within the period from November 2016 to May In the assessment of the possible payment schedule, the following have taken into account: the budgetary burden of the Republic of Serbia, the necessity of similar payment conditions as for the citizens of the Republic of Scrbia as wcll as the fact that the citizens of the former republics of the SFR Y were prevented from using their foreign currency savings for the period longer than two decades. The finding of the European Court is that Serbia should also pay these savings under the same conditions as for the Serbian citizens who had such savings with domestic branch offices of Serbian banks, for which reason it should be taken into account that the banks in RS calculated interests on savings until 1997 applying contracted interest rates. Within the period from 1998 to 31 May 2016, according to the adopted regulations, an interest rate of 2% annually would be applied. For the next period, until May 2021, ban interest rate of 0.5% annually would be applied. ln view of the present inflation level in the euro zone and medium-term projections of this macro-economic indicator, it is evident that this indicator value during the payment period of "old" foreign currency savings to citizens of the former republics of SFRY with the Serbian banks would be considerably below the level of targeted inflation of the European Central Bank of 2%. To contributc to this, let us mention a current record of low interest rate on long-term state bonds of the most important members of the euro zone a1uounting to zero or below zero for the obscrvcd maturity period.

5 In accordance with the applicable regulation, Serbia will settle this liability by issuance of securities - bonds denominated in euros, without coupons, issued on name and registered with the Central Securities Depository and Clearing House a.d. Beograd. In order to service the subject foreign currency savings, it should be regulated which bank/banks should perform such operations (opening of holders' accounts for securities with the Central Securities Depository and Clearing House, registration of bonds on such accounts, payments of bonds - opening of accounts for money, etc.) - all to be done by a single bank, or the bank concerned only for savings of bank branch offices under bankruptcy/liquidation, and by other banks for their savings. Detailed conditions, method and procedure of servicing the savings will be govemed by an appropriate by-law. Verification procedure In view of lapse of time, events in this region, as well as the difficulties with avai!able documentation and data bases on foreign currency savings, necessary for savers to submit applications (claim registrations) including relevant documentation, to the competent body in RS, for processing, control, co-ordination and establishment of rights of individual savers. Detailed conditions and method of procedure in respect of claims and other issues in this respect will be governed by a by-law. On the occasion of establishment of a saver's rights, a particular problem arises in cases in which savers do not longer have original savings books (lost or damaged), or do not have other authentic documents to be of help to evidence savings ( evidencing the amount or possession of savings, etc.), since the Court ordered to pay to such savers as well. Also, it should be provided the evidence of non-payments to savers of their savings, according to the regulations of the former republics of SFRY. The appropriate certificates issued by the competent institutions of the former republics should be provided by the savers. In that regard the competent ministries of finance of the former republics of SFRY were addressed letters by the Ministry of Finance of RS on 3 February 2015 requesting information on documents that could confirm whether there had been any payments to savers in compliance with the regulations of the states concemed. l ndividual measures/just satisfaction The applicant, Mr Sahdanovié, who had savings in the Tuzla Branch of the Investbanka, was paid EUR 4,000 (four thousand euros) in respect of non-pecuniary damage. The individual measures will be effected afl:er necessary legislative amendments are adopted "in order to allow the applicant and all others in his position to recover their "old" foreign-currency savings under the same conditions as Serbian citizens who had such savings in the domestic branches of Serbian banks" (paragraph 146 of the Grand Chamber Judgment). It is envisaged that the Working Group would by the end of May 2015 finalize the Draft of the legislative amendments and forward it to the Government. The Government shall keep the Committee informed of further steps taken in order to execute this judgment of the European Court.

6 ACTION PLAN FOR EXECUTION OF JUDGEMENT ALISlé AND OTHERS VERSUS BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA, CROATIA, SERBIA, SLOVENIA AND THE FORMER YUGOSLAV REPUBLIC OF MACEDONIA, NO /08 OF 16 JUL Y 2014 Activities Responsible Deadline 1. Working Group established to perform orders contained in the judgement of the European Court of Human Rights Task of the Working Group: To propose Action Plan to include proposais for execulion of the judgement, undertaking of all neœssary measures, also including legislative amendments. so that savers in the same situation and the persons mentioned in the judgement, are enabled to regain their,,old" foreign currency savings under the same conditions as the Serbian citizens who had such savings with domestic branch offices of Serbian banks, and to propose the method in which to prove existence of savings in case the saver concerned no longer has the contract or savings books The Government of the Republic of Serbia 11 December Analysis of verification of claims by provision of information from the competent institutions of the former Yugoslav republics ln order to verify the claims, letters were addressed Io the competent institutions of the The Ministry of Finance 28 February 2015 former Yugoslav republics for establishment of amounts of used foreign currency savings accordinq Io the requlations of the states concerned Assessment of total debt in accordance with the judgement ln order to collect total debt amount, during assessment, available data from the Deposit lnsurance Agency and the National Bank of Serbia were used resulting in establishment The Working Group 12 March 2015 of annroximate amount of up to 310 million euros Consideration of schedule and conditions for settlement of liabilities towards foreign currency savers Consideration of minimum payment amount, repayment period, amount of interest rate The Working Group ln progress and consideration of necessarv documentation to orove,,old" foreign currency savings Drafting of legal solution and amendments and supplements to the applicable 2002 law governing,,old" foreign currency savings. After the adoption of draft law, preparation of bylaws. The Working Group 16 July 2015