The European Court of Human Rights has held that Slovenia is not responsible under Article 1 of Protocol No. 1 for “old” foreign currency savings deposited in the Sarajevo branch of Ljubljana Bank Ljubljana where the related claims were transferred to a privatisation account under Bosnian Herzegovinian law.
The applicants, heirs of Vladimir Landika, challenged Slovenia’s refusal to repay foreign currency savings originally deposited in 1981 with the Ljubljana Basic Bank Sarajevo, then associated with Ljubljana Bank Ljubljana. Following banking reforms in 1990, the Sarajevo entity became a branch of the Ljubljana bank. After the dissolution of the former Yugoslavia, such deposits were classified across successor states as “old” or “frozen” foreign currency savings.
In 1997, the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina enacted legislation providing for the transfer of certain claims relating to these savings into special privatisation accounts. In 1998, Mr Landika’s savings were automatically transferred to such an account and converted into privatisation certificates. Although Slovenia later adopted implementing legislation following the Grand Chamber’s judgment in Ališić and Others v. Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Serbia, Slovenia and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, the scheme did not cover funds already transferred into privatisation accounts. The applicants’ claim for repayment was therefore rejected by the Slovenian authorities, including the Constitutional Court.
Before the Strasbourg court, the applicants argued that Slovenia remained responsible for repayment notwithstanding the transfer. The Court distinguished the present case from Ališić, noting that the savings at issue in that judgment had not been transferred to privatisation accounts and that the implications of such transfers had not previously been examined.
The Court found that the transfer of the claims had been effected pursuant to Bosnian Herzegovinian legislation and without the involvement of the Ljubljana bank in Ljubljana. Slovenia could not be held responsible for the design or operation of the privatisation scheme in Bosnia and Herzegovina, nor for the transfer of claims without the savers’ consent. The Slovenian courts had provided detailed and reasoned decisions in dismissing the applicants’ claims.
The Court further held that Slovenia’s responsibility could not be established even for the period between its ratification of the Convention in 1994 and the 1998 transfer of the claims. During that period, liability for the relevant savings had been assumed by a Bosnian Herzegovinian legal entity, Ljubljana Bank Sarajevo, and that assumption of liability remained on the official register until 2004.
Accordingly, the Court concluded that there had been no violation of Article 1 of Protocol No. 1.