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MINISTERS’ DEPUTIES |
Decisions |
CM/Del/Dec(2024)1501/H46-6 |
13 June 2024 |
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1501st meeting, 11-13 June 2024 (DH)
H46-6 Bell group v. Belgium (Application No. 44826/05) Supervision of the execution of the European Court’s judgments
Reference document |
Decisions
The Deputies
1. recalled that this group of cases concerns the excessive length of civil and criminal proceedings (in particular, their judicial investigation) and that the new judgment Van Den Kerkhof findsthat the problems relating to the excessive length of proceedings in the judicial district of Brussels are of a structural nature;
2. recalled also that these issues and the judicial backlog, particularly in Brussels, are long-standing problems identified by the Court as long ago as 2005 and that excessive delays in the administration of justice can pose a serious threat for the respect of the rule of law and the access to justice; welcomed, thus, the consultations held in Brussels on this issue between the authorities and the Secretariat in March 2023;
As regards individual measures
3. invited the authorities to pay the just satisfaction and default interest due to the applicant Vandroemme without further delay and to ensure that the domestic proceedings in the Van Den Kerkhof case are finalised as soon as possible; decided to close their supervision of the cases Abboud and Vegotex International S.A., as all the individual measures required were taken, and adopted Final Resolution CM/ResDH(2024)115;
As regards general measures
4. noted with interest that progress has been made (including the finalisation of the measuring of the workload of judges and clerks) and that several measures are under way (inter alia, the digitisation of the justice system and the recruitment for the vacant posts for magistrates and clerks) to continue to tackle the excessive length of judicial proceedings;
5. stressed, however, the importance of progressing without delay, in particular by finalising the mapping of the backlog and processing times of all the courts and tribunals, while immediately increasing the resources of the most overloaded ones, such as the Brussels Court of Appeal, where a significant increase in resources appears urgently required in the light of many elements, including statistical data;
6. as regards judicial statistics, took note with interest of the authorities’ recent, major efforts to improve them and encourage their rapid finalisation, notably through the announced increase of statisticians; invited the authorities, as soon as they are ready, to provide them with updated and complete statistics (national total and by court of appeal) concerning the “clearance rate” and “disposal time” for civil and criminal cases, at first instance and on appeal level, including concerning family cases and criminal judicial investigations;
7. as regards the compensatory remedy, noted with interest the new examples provided and the reform of the law on extra-contractual liability, which could increase the use of the remedy for exceeding the reasonable time limit while inviting once again the authorities to put in place the necessary means to obtain complete information on it and thus be able to monitor its functioning in practice;
8. noted with satisfaction the recent major budgetary efforts allocated to judicial staff while inviting the authorities to continue them, notably for the conciliation chambers within the courts and tribunals, in a long-term structural perspective, in order to clear the judicial backlog once and for all; also invited the authorities to follow up rapidly the finalised measuring of the workload of magistrates and clerks, by giving priority support to the courts and tribunals most faced with a large workload and judicial backlog;
9. decided to review this group of cases at one of their DH meetings in 2025 and, in the meantime, invited the Secretariat and the authorities to continue their dialogue, in particular concerning the Brussels Court of Appeal and the complementary and specific measures envisaged for it.