1236 meeting (22-24 September 2015) (DH) Communication d une ONG (Association for Protection of

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1 SECRETARIAT GENERAL SECRETARIAT OF THE COMMITTEE OF MINISTERS SECRETARIAT DU COMITE DES MINISTRES Contact: Clare Ovey Tel: DH-DD(2015)776 Date: 30/7/2015 Documents distributed at the request of a Representative shall be under the sole responsibility of the said Representative, without Meeting: Item reference: 1236 meeting (22-24 September 2015) (DH) Communication from a NGO (Association for Protection of Hard Currency Savings Depositors in Bosnia and Herzegovina) (22/07/15) and response from the authorities (29/07/2015) in the Ališić and others case against Slovenia (Application No /09) Information made available under Rule 9.2 of the Rules of the Committee of Ministers for the supervision of the execution of judgments and of the terms of friendly settlements. * * * * * * * * * * * 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 : 1236 réunion (22-24 septembre 2015) (DH) Communication d une ONG (Association for Protection of Hard Currency Savings Depositors in Bosnia and Herzegovina) (22/07/15) et réponse des autorités (29/07/2015) dans l affaire Ališić et autres c. Slovénie (Affaire n 60642/09) (anglais uniquement) Informations mises à disposition en vertu de la Règle 9.2 des Règles du Comité des Ministres pour la surveillance de l exécution des arrêts et des termes des règlements amiables.

2 DG 1 'l 2 lull SERVICE DE L'EXEC~]g~ DES ARRETS DE ljl. ASSOCIATION FOR PROTECTION OF HARD CURRENCY SAVINGS DEPOSITORS IN BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA Office of the Council of Europe in Sarajevo Head of Office of the Council of Europe lmportanne Center, Zmaja od Bosne 7-7a, Sarajevo To Whom lt May Concern, I am using this opportunity to express my respect to the Office of the Council of Europe in Sarajevo. We would like to show our gratitude for having the opportunity to voice objections on behalf of deposit savers to the law adopted by the Republic of Slovenia by the order of the European Court in the case number 60642/08 from July 16, 2014 and we kindly as you to communicate the objections to: COUNCIL OF EUROPE. Mr Thorb.iorn Jagland. Secretary General Committee of Ministers M lgor C rnadak, Chairman High Commissioner for Human Rights M r Nils Muiznieks. High Commissioner We find that the Slovenian law is not in accordance with the concerned decision of the European Court. In relation to deposit savers from Bosnia and Herzegovina, t he Republic of Slovenia continues violating Article 1 of the Protocol no. 1 to the Convention, Article 6, Article 8 in relation to Article 1 of the Protocol no. 1 to the Convention, Article 13 and Article 14 of the Convention. What is particularly troubling is the misuse of personal data of deposit savers which were delivered by the minister of finance of Federation of BiH, without the consent and knowledge of deposit savers, to the Ministry of Finance of Slovenia, and on whose basis Slovenia gives the right to third parties (Article 6, paragraph (3) of the Slovenian law) to collect under very suspicious conditions claims of the original owner of savings deposit. The Association has already requested that the Slovenia State Prosecutor withdraws from the Ministry of Finance of Slovenia personal data on savings depositors and their privatisation single accounts in order to prevent their misuse. We have also requested that the Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Personal Data Protection Agency in BiH ensure that the data is returned to Bosnia and Herzegovina. Udruzcnjc za zastitu dcviznih stedisa u 13osni i llerccgovini, CemaluSa 6, Snrajcvo Association fbr Protection of Hard Currency Savings Depositors in Bosniu and llcrzcllovinu

3 The Association is preparing the request to the Constitutional Court of Slovenia related to the assessment of constitutionality of the law in relation to the decision of the European Court and the Convention. Following the submission of the request to the Constitutional Court of Slovenia, we will deliver it in Slovenian and English version to the competent authorities of the Council of Europe. The Association has initiated the procedure of requesting that the competent authorities of Bosnia and Herzegovina issue to savings depositors certificates on their savings on December 31, 1991, including humanitarian payments following that date, as well as certificate on possible use of privatisation rights - certificates of old foreign currency savings until January 8, 2001 when they were cancelled by the decision of the Constitutional Court of Federation of BiH number U 10/00. As far as we are aware, the privatisation certificates of the old foreign currency savings of Ljubljanska Banka Ljubljana, Invest Banka Beograd and JIK Banka Beograd, were not used in privatisation in the period in which they were used as means of payment for purchase of apartments and state property (January 8, 2011). Sarajevo,,21 July, 2015 t-~tit(i "~ \ HE.?cb<"". "" ",(',., aesw.egarzs ~ ::.' ~;,~ ~ Basic Fazlija li :~"' 1 ::- ~ 1' ~:..e Ami a rsoft{ i""...:,::. Presid J of the A~~!.{~ Memb~ng Committee of the Association Udru;;.cnje za zastitu dcviznih ~ tedi ~ a u Bosni i Herccgovini, Ccmalusa 6, Sarajcvo Association for Protection of I lard Currency S:l\'ings Dcpo~ilors in 13osnia and Hert.cgovina

4 STALNO PREDSTAVNI~TVO REPUBLIKE SLOVENIJE PRI SVETU EVROPE PERMANENT REPRESENTATION OF THE REPUBLIC OF SLOVENIA TO THE COUNCIL OF EUROPE 40, Allee de la Robertsau Strasbourg France T: F: E: msb@gov.si Number: 79/2015- HH Date: 29. July 2015 Ms. Genevieve Mayer Head of Department Department for the Execution of the Judgments COUNCIL OF EUROPE I CONSEIL DE L'EUROPE DGI 2 9 JUIL 2015 SERVICE DE L'EXECUTION DES ARRETS DE LA CEDH Subject: Letter from the Association for Protection of Hard Currency Savings Depositors in Bosnia and Herzegovina concerning the case Ails le- Replay of the Republic of Slovenia Dear Ms. Mayer, Thank you very much for the letter from the Association for Protection of Hard Currency Savings Depositors in Bosnia and Herzegovina. lt was carefully read through by the competent Slovenian authorities and I would like to use this opportunity to provide you with the following answers as received from the competent authorities in Ljubljana. Although the critical views expressed by the Association do not concern only Slovenia and the implementation of the ECHR judgement in AliSic case we provide an explanation exclusively as regards Slovenia's involvement in these issues. The Parliament of the Republic of Slovenia adopted the Act on the method of Execution of the Judgement of the European Court of Human Rights {ECtHR) iri Case No 60642/08 on 22 June 2015 {thereafter: the Act). The Act was published in the Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia on 3 July 2015 and entered into force on 4 July The Act sets a repayment scheme in accordance with the ECtHR judgment and for the foreigncurrency savers who have not yet been repaid, based on the principle of non-discrimination. By adopting the Act within the deadline set by the ECtHR, Slovenia reconfirmed its commitment to the implementation of the judgment and to the respect of human rights in general. According to the Act the unpaid savers of the relevant branches of Ljubljanska Banka Zagreb and Sarajevo will be able to submit their request for verification from 1 December 2015 to 31 December 2017 and the Succession Fund of the Republic of Slovenia, as the competent authority, will verify their requests. The data received by the savers has to be compared with data from the relevant branches of the bank. The Sarajevo Main Branch was nationalized in 1993 by Bosnia and Herzegovina, causing the Ljubljanska Banka d.d. Ljubljana to lose all control of it, including the possession of relevant bank data, which is necessary for comparison with the saver's requests.

5 To overcome that obstacle Slovenia and Bosnia and Herzegovina should conclude a Memorandum of Understanding regarding the exchange of data referring to the unpaid old foreign-currency savings of Sarajevo Main Branch. We believe that the statement of the Association as regards the non-accordance of the Slovenian act with the Court's judgement is unjustified. The Act sets up a procedure to verify the balance of unpaid foreign-currency savings for individual beneficiaries. The procedure is beneficiary oriented and will not overburden them with unnecessary administrative barriers, amounts determined in the verification procedure will be paid to beneficiaries as soon as 30 days after the decision has become final. This scheme ensures the repayment of the savings together with interest, which preserve the actual value of the deposit over the past 24 years. As regards the privatization accounts, legislation of Bosnian entities (Federation of Bosn ia and Hercegovina and Republika Srbska ) from the late 1990s explicitly defines that by transferring the old foreign currency savings to the unique privatization accounts the claims are being transferred against the Federation of Bosnia and Hercegovina and against Republika Srbska accordingly. The claims from the old foreign currency savings were transformed into certificates I coupons for the use in the privatization process. The relevant legislation of Federation of Bosnia and Hercegovina determines that the unused certificates expire after a certain date (which has been prolonged several times), which further confirms the view that the transfers were not meant as temporary. Based on the relevant legislation the claims for the unused transferred amounts therefore exist against both Bosnian entities and not towards Ljubljanska Banka Main Branch Sarajevo and the performance of the liability cannot be assumed by the Republic of Slovenia within the scope of the judgment, since these accounts were transformed and cannot be considered as unsettled obligation of the Sarajevo Main branch. I kindly ask the Secretariat to distribute this reply of the Republic of Slovenia on the submission from the Association for Protection of Hard Currency Savings Depositors in Bosnia and Herzegovina concerning the case Alisic to all delegations. ~..,~~~itslo~t~o, ~ Yours sincerely, ~ ~ 1".!. "'\,<10' ~-...,,,..., ""l: '."',?0' ff\ a.~ " ;:;:;,.l Eva T ic../ w~ ~ $~- Ambassador ~~ ~c:. 'fr.ls 3<1~~"\-=... ~ anent Representative of ovenia to the Council of Europe