European Court of Human Rights

Resolution CM/ResDH(2010)171¹

Execution of the judgment of the European Court of Human Rights

Lykourezos against Greece

(Application No. 33554/03, judgment of 15 June 2006, final on 15 September 2006)

The Committee of Ministers, under the terms of Article 46, paragraph 2, of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, which provides that the Committee supervises the execution of final judgments of the European Court of Human Rights (hereinafter referred to as “the Convention” and “the Court”);

Having regard to the judgment transmitted by the Court once it had become final;

Recalling that the violation of the Convention found by the Court in this case concerns the right to free elections due to applicant’s forfeiture of his parliamentary seat following an amendment to the Constitution prohibiting extra parliamentary professional activity of members of Parliament (violation of Article 3 of Protocol No. 1) (see details in Appendix);

Having invited the government of the respondent state to inform the Committee of the measures taken in order to comply with Greece’s obligation under Article 46, paragraph 1, of the Convention to abide by the judgment;

Having examined the information provided by the government in accordance with the Committee’s Rules for the application of Article 46, paragraph 2, of the Convention;

Having satisfied itself that, within the time-limit set, the respondent state paid the applicant the just satisfaction provided in the judgment (see details in Appendix),

Recalling that a finding of violations by the Court requires, over and above the payment of just satisfaction awarded by the Court in its judgments, the adoption by the respondent state, where appropriate:

- of individual measures to put an end to the violations and erase their consequences so as to achieve as far as possible restitutio in integrum; and

- of general measures, preventing similar violations;

DECLARES, having examined the measures taken by the respondent state (see Appendix), that it has exercised its functions under Article 46, paragraph 2, of the Convention in this case and

DECIDES to close the examination of this case.

Appendix to Resolution CM/ResDH(2010)171

Information about the measures to comply with the judgment in the case of

Lykourezos against Greece

Introductory case summary

The case concerns the forfeiture by the applicant, a lawyer of the Athens Bar, of the parliamentary seat he had won in the 2000 elections by virtue of a Special Supreme Court decision in 2003, which applied Article 57 of the Constitution (as amended in 2001) prohibiting the exercise by Parliamentarians of all professional activities. The European Court found that the Special Supreme Court, by considering the applicant’s election under the new Article 57 of the Constitution without taking into account the fact that he had been elected in 2000 in accordance with the law, had caused him to forfeit his seat and had deprived his constituents of the candidate they had chosen freely and democratically to represent them for four years in Parliament, in breach of the principle of legitimate expectation (§57 of judgment) (violation of Article 3 of Protocol No. 1).

I. Payment of just satisfaction and individual measures

a) Details of just satisfaction

b) Individual measures

The European Court awarded the applicant just satisfaction in respect of pecuniary damage and costs and expenses. The applicant’s claim for a larger sum in respect of pecuniary damages was dismissed by the Court, which noted that following the loss of the parliamentary seat the applicant resumed his professional activities and received the resultant fees. In addition, the applicant had not shown that the total of the fees in question was less than that of the parliamentary allowances that he did indeed lose during the period in question.

II. General measures

In 2008, the paragraph prohibiting the exercise of other professional activities by members of Parliament was abrogated (Official Journal-A-102/2.6.2008). Article 57, paragraph 1.e of the Constitution, as amended, provides that a special law could define certain professional activities, the exercise of which could be prohibited to Members of Parliament.

III. Conclusions of the respondent state

The government considers that the measures adopted have fully remedied the consequences for the applicant of the violation of the Convention found by the European Court in this case, that these measures will prevent new, similar violations and that Greece has thus complied with its obligations under Article 46, paragraph 1, of the Convention.