The ECHR suggests moral hazard in the payment of compensations to former asset owners

The draft law by which the Romanian state would only compensate the owners of nationalized properties for only 15% of their real value, which the news agencies informed about yesterday, had already started being discussed about a year and a half ago, and started taking shape in October 2010, after the trial in Strasbourg of two "pilot causes", by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), which has demanded that Romania adjust the legislation which governs the compensation, to stop the ECHR from being flooded with thousands of complaints.

The current draft, which is set to be put up for public debate and later remitted to the Parliament, not only provides the capping of the compensation at 15% of the value of the assets seized by the Communist regime ("This is all the government can afford to allocate", Dorina Danielescu, the chairwoman of the National Authority for the Restitution of Properties, said before the government, as reported by Mediafax), as well as the scheduling of the payments over a period of 10-12 years. Plaintiffs must submit their requests for compensation within 60 days, or else run the risk of forfeiting their rights. The deadline may only be extended once, by a maximum of 30 days.

The project also stipulates that the reparations by the restitution in kind or using other assets as compensation will be eliminated, as the only manner of compensation will be accepted under the terms of the current draft law.

In a note of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MAE), which was talked about in July 2010, it is shown that the European Court of Human Rights supports (unofficially, most likely) "the reconsideration of the level of compensation". The document of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs mentioned that the level of the compensation might be set, "eventually", at 50% of the current value of the property, "with the economic crisis providing a good justification for such a solution".

The note also mentioned that the ECHR recommends "the passing of a single law when it comes to the restitution of properties", which would implement "simplified and efficient" procedures and which would include "realistic compensation", which the state budget would be able to bear, possibly by rescheduling the payment of the compensations.

If one is not among the victims, then the evolution of the notion of "compensation" becomes very interesting: first of all, the government aggrieves the citizens who were robbed by the communist regime or refuses to comply with the court orders which require it to compensate them; later, the ECHR gets sick of dealing with the thousands of lawsuits filed against the Romanian state and asks it to do something to help it escape this deluge of complaints, basically granting it a "carte blanche" to do with the "human rights" as it pleases, in this particularly annoying case; the Romanian au1thorities grasp the opportunity and using the international crisis as an excuse to start dreaming of cutting the damages paid to the victims by half; and in closing it sets up its attempts to bargain with the public ("public consultation"), by proposing a far more unsatisfactory ratio - 15%.

It is very, very interesting indeed.

But, if one is among those who are entitled to compensation, the phenomenon gets far less interesting.

It's dirty, even filthier than the seizure of the properties by the Communist regime.

Why pay any damages to the victims at all?!

At least that would make it clear that they are victims...

Others received hundreds of times more than what they had lost.

Are some people's rights "more equal" than those of others?

Didn't the excuse of the economic crisis work at the time of the creation of the Proprietatea Fund?

Was there a time when Romania was not in a crisis?

• Corin Trandafir: I find this plan shameful

"I am very disappointed by this project and I find it shameful", said Corin Trandafir, partner of law firm "Rubin Meyer Doru & Trandafir", who represents the heirs of the Malaxa and Auschnitt families.

In his opinion, if the draft law gets passed, there will be the option of challenging it with the Constitutional Court.

Corin Trandafir said: "Overall, the amount is ridiculous and violates the Romanian laws and the international conventions which Romania belongs to, such as for instance the European Convention of Human Rights. Furthermore, this will lead to a never-ending string of lawsuits at the ECHR". (E.V.)

• • Gheorghe Piperea: The capping of the compensation at 15% is discriminatory

The draft law will lead to tens of thousands of lawsuits, and capping the compensation at 15% is discrimination at its worst, lawyer Gheorghe Piperea said.

He said: "I am bothered by the fact that the lawsuits which will follow will be paid for out of my pockets and those of the other taxpayers. The legal system is expensive".

The elimination of the reparatory measures by returning the properties in kind or by compensating with other assets and the 90-day deadline for the submission of the case - provisions stipulated in the draft law - can not be considered constitutional and in compliance with the ECHR, according to him.

Gheorghe Piperea said: "The ECHR never said that the former owners would have to be paid 15%, but that the compensation should be capped. 15% over 10 years does not mean capping. (...) What happens with the ongoing lawsuits? What happens to those who received the buildings in kind. How will the 15% be calculated%? How will we know what the properties are worth? Given all of the above, what was the Proprietatea Fund created for?"

Lawyer Gheorghe Piperea said he was very disappointment at the manner in which the ECHR was acting in this lawsuit. In his opinion, the "gods" of the ECHR are seeing their "twilight", with the institution becoming the victim of its own success.

According to Mr. Piperea, given the plan to cap the compensation at 15% over 10-12 years, the notion of responsibility for the protection of the right of ownership becomes a sinister joke. (ELENA VOINEA)

• • Orban: The reasons why the Government wants to cap the compensation will be explained in detail

The reasons which were behind the conception of the draft law which is intended the compensation of former owners at 15% of the market value of the buildings "will be explained in detail", said Leonard Orban, the minister of European Affairs.

"We are talking about a draft law which has only been read once and we have to see what comes out of it first (...). The reasons why it came to this will be explained in detail. There are several considerations, but I would not like to go into details, since I am not the expert in this area", said Orban, quoted by Mediafax.

Referring the draft of the Government, the minister of Finance, Bogdan Drăgoi, said that the remaining number of cases needs to be taken into account, and said that a "careful calculation" was made.

"It is a proposal. First of all, we need to look at the number of cases still remaining, and at what we can currently afford to pay, given the current context of the crisis, from a fiscal point of view. This calculation was carefully conducted, we even looked at the precedents set up by the ECHR, cases which they solved, and we are in line", said Drăgoi.