MINISTERS’ DEPUTIES

Decisions

CM/Del/Dec(2024)1514/H46-13

5 December 2024

1514th meeting, 3-5 December 2024 (DH)   H46-13 C.G. and Others group v. Bulgaria (Application No. 1365/07) Supervision of the execution of the European Court’s judgments   Reference documents CM/Notes/1514/H46-13

 

Decisions

The Deputies

1.         recalled that these cases concern shortcomings in the system of judicial review of expulsion on national security grounds and detention pending such expulsion, failure to examine rigorously claims of risk of death and ill-treatment in the destination country and the lack of a remedy with automatic suspensive effect to prevent expulsion when arguable claims are made of such risks;

As regards individual measures

2.         as concerns the Kurilovich case, reiterated their invitation to the authorities to inform the relevant domestic courts of the specific importance for the first applicant to be able to benefit, if he is refused a visa, from meaningful examination of the reasons for his categorisation as undesirable alien to compensate for the shortcomings of the judicial review in the reopened proceedings; noted that the above indication does not imply an obligation to allow the applicant to enter Bulgarian territory;

3.         noted with interest that in the Bou Hassoun case, the domestic proceedings were reopened and the Sofia City Administrative Court has confirmed the expulsion order, following an analysis of its proportionality and analysis of factual information; invited the authorities to provide, if necessary on a confidential basis, additional clarifications on the nature of the data or evidence that were reviewed by the court, to fully demonstrate that the executive’s allegations against the applicant were the object of a meaningful judicial scrutiny, as required by the Court’s judgment;

As regards general measures

4.         recalled that the measures adopted by the authorities so far have allowed considerable progress to be noted, such as the improvement of judicial review of expulsion orders and detention pending expulsion and the creation of a remedy with automatic suspensive effect in the event of allegations of risk to life or limb in the destination country, applicable also in the event of expulsion order based on national security grounds;

5.         reiterated their invitation to the authorities to provide their assessment of the reasons for the violation found in the recent Bou Hassoun case concerning a lack of meaningful judicial scrutiny and of the need of any further measures; invited them to provide, if necessary on confidential basis, information demonstrating the type of “data” examined by courts in classified procedures; and encouraged them to organise consultations with the Secretariat on the modalities of judicial review;

6.         took note with interest of the legislative proposal and the ongoing procedure for interpretative judgment regarding the publicity of judicial decisions in classified cases; reiterated their call on the authorities to introduce rapidly a system of open and closed judgments whereby, in cases where it is impossible to publish the complete judgment because of the risk to national security, the gist of the factual findings and reasoning is nonetheless made public;

7.         noting that the legislative framework appears satisfactory as regards examination of risk of ill‑treatment in the destination country and that there are positive examples of case-law in this area, invited the authorities to provide further examples of case-law and clarifications on the issues identified in the analysis of the Secretariat; in the light of the progress achieved, decided to continue the examination of these aspects and the relevant Auad case under the standard procedure;

8.         noted that while appeals against detention pending expulsion at first instance are often processed in a timely manner, there are still frequent delays before the Supreme Administrative Court; invited the authorities to provide their assessment on the measures, which could ensure that appeals against detention are as a rule  examined in a timely manner and on how the diligent handling of expulsion procedures is assessed by the courts under the new framework introduced in 2021; decided, in the light of the progress achieved, to continue the examination of these aspects and the relevant M. and Others case under the standard supervision procedure;

9.         invited the authorities to engage in close cooperation with the Secretariat on the aspects identified in its analysis and to provide information on all the outstanding questions above concerning the individual and the general measures by the end of September 2025.