MINISTERS’ DEPUTIES

Decisions

CM/Del/Dec(2021)1419/H46-26

2 December 2021

1419th meeting, 30 November – 2 December 2021 (DH)

 

H46-26 Bucur and Toma v. Romania (Application No. 40238/02)

Supervision of the execution of the European Court’s judgments

 

Reference document

CM/Notes/1419/H46-26

 

Decisions

The Deputies

1.         recalled that the violations found relate to the disclosure by the first applicant, a military officer within the Romanian Intelligence Service, of information on wide-scale illegal telephone tapping on the part of the intelligence service and of the content of some of the communications thus intercepted, including telephone conversations between the second and third applicants;

2.         recalled also the Committee’s assessment and conclusions that the individual measures required were fully adopted and that the general measures taken appeared capable of guaranteeing non-repetition of the violations of Articles 6 and 10 of the Convention in relation to the first applicant’s conviction and trial and full compliance with Romania’s obligations under Article 38;

3.         noted, in respect of the measures still needed to guarantee non-repetition of the violations of Articles 8 and 13 because of the lack of sufficient safeguards in the national legislation governing secret surveillance based on national security considerations, the assessment of the present legislative situation presented by the Secretariat in document H/Exec(2021)19;

4.         noted with concern that, more than twenty years after these questions were first raised, in Rotaru v. Romania, the relevant legislative framework still does not provide all the required safeguards to protect individuals against abuses of power in pursuit of such surveillance, notwithstanding the Committee’s calls to the authorities to fully address this matter;

5.         strongly urged the authorities to step up their efforts to adopt, without any further delay, the measures still required to bring the national legislation fully into line with the Convention requirements; underlined in this regard the utmost importance for them to review, in the light of these requirements, the legislative proposal pending for adoption in Parliament aimed at introducing in some cases a judicial review of the legality of secret surveillance measures to restore the possibility to use material obtained through such surveillance as evidence in criminal proceedings; strongly encouraged them to make full use of the expertise available through the Council of Europe in this and their future reform efforts;

6.         requested the authorities to provide without delay information about the concrete measures envisaged to address the remaining questions outlined in document H/Exec(2021)19 and decided to resume examination of this case at their 1451st meeting (December 2022) (DH) at the latest.