The Council Of Europe's Committee of Ministers has welcomed moves made by the Romanian authorities to reform the mechanisms and legal processes in the restitution of property confiscated during the communist era. The changes come in response to a landmark case at the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), in which the restitution system in Romania was found to be wanting.

The Committee of Ministers discussed the execution of EHCR judgments between June 4 and June 6 and the Romanian reparation cases were examined. In its decision “the Committee welcomes the determination shown by the Romanian authorities in the execution of this judgment, which has allowed the adoption of a new law reforming the reparation mechanism with a view to ensuring its effectiveness and viability.”

Following a pilot judgment in the Maria Atanasiu and Others versus Romania case, delivered on October 12, 2010, the ECHR ruled that Romania would have to put general measures in place for restitution claims. Those measures were to be adopted within 18 months from the date on which the judgment became final – January 12, 2011.

The ECHR has put other similar cases on hold until the Romanian authorities have put in place the ECHR's recommendations and set up the new system for restoring confiscated property. The Committee of Ministers recommended that as the new mechanism is rolled out, it should be supervised and carefully checked. The Committee of Ministers urged “close and constant monitoring of the application of the new law so that the competent authorities can, if necessary, rapidly intervene including through legislative measures, with a view to ensuring a effective operation of the newly established mechanism.”

News broke earlier this year about Romania’s new plan to create an extra National Fund that would include agricultural land and forest, which would be given to former owners who failed to be compensated via the Fondul Proprietatea, which had been created for this purpose.

Romania has lost 435 cases at the ECHR concerning properties confiscated during the Communist regime, for breaching Article 1 in protocol 1 of the Convention on Human Rights, which protects property rights.

Over 200,000 property restitution files are currently awaiting a solution in Romania. We wrote about the new proposed system for property restitution here.

editor@romania-insider.com