New ruling – Slovenia v. Croatia

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) on Wednesday ruled that Slovenia cannot sue Croatia on behalf of the Ljubljanska Banka for violation of humans rights

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) on Wednesday ruled that Slovenia cannot sue Croatia on behalf of the Ljubljanska Banka for violation of humans rights saying that it has no jurisdiction to examine that inter-state application alleging violation of human rights worth almost €430 million.

The court upheld Croatia's arguments ruling that the now defunct Ljubljanska Banka (LB) is not a non-governmental organisation but is closely related to the state so Slovenia cannot act on its behalf and cannot lodge an application alleging violation of any Convention right.

"The ECHR published its decision not allowing Slovenia to act in the inter-state application against Croatia regarding the Ljubljanska Banka, and declared that it does not have jurisdiction to hear the case because the bank is not a non-governmental organisation but is closely connected to the state," Croatia's representative before the court, Stefica Staznik said.

Slovenia filed the application in 2016 claiming several violations of the Convention perpetrated by Croatia's judicial and executive authorities when they acted in the case of receivables by the now defunct Ljubljanska Banka from Croatian companies.

Croatia, however, claimed that the ECHR does not have jurisdiction to examine the case because the bank is owned by the Slovenian government and is managed by the Succession Fund.

"The ECHR does not have jurisdiction to examine applications by government organisations nor is the Convention designed to protect a country's financial interests but to protect individuals and nongovernmental organisations who are the victims of human rights violations by a state," Staznik explained.

She claimed that there was no difference in the way cases were conducted or ruled in which the Ljubljanska Banka was the petitioner before Croatian courts compared to other similar proceedings and the bank had not exhausted all domestic legal means. Also, Slovenia did not respect a six-month deadline before applying to the European court.

Since 1991 the defunct Ljubljanska Bank filed several suits before Croatian courts for receivables on loans and guarantees issued to Croatian companies, mostly in the agriculture and food sector.

In most cases, recovering these debts was impossible as debtors and their companies had gone bankrupt and no longer existed.

Slovenia demanded compensation that would be on par to its losses, allegedly due to the violation of the convention's rights, amounting to €429,536,070,30 with interest.

The ECHR decision is final and Slovenia cannot lodge a new application to that court for the same matter.

Text: Hina

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