European Court of Human Rights

THIRD SECTION

DECISION

Application no. 32805/06
by KÄRNKRAFTTEKNIK I STOCKSUND AB and Others
against Sweden

The European Court of Human Rights (Third Section), sitting on 2 February 2010 as a Chamber composed of:

Josep Casadevall, President,
Elisabet Fura,
Boštjan M. Zupančič,
Alvina Gyulumyan,
Ineta Ziemele,
Luis López Guerra,
Ann Power, judges,
and Santiago Quesada, Section Registrar,

Having regard to the above application lodged on 4 August 2006,

Having regard to the formal declarations accepting a friendly settlement of the case,

Having deliberated, decides as follows:

PROCEDURE

The application was lodged by Kärnkraftteknik i Stocksund AB, a Swedish limited liability company conducting consultancy business in the field of nuclear power technology, as well as Mr Lars-Olov Höglund and Mr Lars Lindberg, Swedish nationals who were born in 1950 and 1957 respectively. Mr Höglund and Mr Lindberg are engineers and experts in nuclear power technology and founders of the first applicant. The Swedish Government (“the Government”) were represented by their Agent, Ms C. Hellner, of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs.

The applicants complained under Articles 6, 8, 13 of the Convention and Article 1 of Protocol No. 1 to the Convention, primarily about the length of compensation proceedings in which the applicants claimed that two power companies had committed errors and omissions in procurement procedures which had made them liable for damages under the Public Procurement Act.

On 8 December 2009 the Court received the following declaration from the Government, signed by the Agent of the Government on 24 November 2009 and by Mr Höglund and Mr Lindberg, as applicants and as representatives of the first applicant, on 29 November 2009:

“The Government and the applicants have now reached the following friendly settlement on the basis of respect for human rights, as defined in the [Convention], in order to terminate the proceedings before the Court.

a)  The Government will pay, ex gratia, to the applicants jointly the sum of EUR 15,000 (fifteen thousand), to be converted into Swedish kronor at the rate applicable on the date of payment. Execution of payment will take place when the Government has received the Court's decision striking the case out of its list of cases.

b)  The applicants declare that they have no further claims on the Swedish State based on the facts of the [present] application.

This settlement is dependent upon the formal approval of the Government at a Cabinet meeting.”

By a decision of 14 January 2010, the Government approved the settlement reached.

THE LAW

The Court takes note of the friendly settlement reached between the parties. It is satisfied that the settlement is based on respect for human rights as defined in the Convention and its Protocols and finds no public policy reasons to justify a continued examination of the application (Article 37 § 1 in fine of the Convention).

In view of the above, it is appropriate to strike the case out of the list.

For these reasons, the Court unanimously

Decides to strike the application out of its list of cases.

Santiago Quesada Josep Casadevall
Registrar President