THE Bulgaria is obliged to pay compensation over 1.6 million euros to the former king of the country of Simeon II and his sister, following a decision of the European Court of Human Rights.
More specifically, the ECtHR ruled that Sofia must pay “on a provisional basis” the aforementioned amount to the former king, as both he and his sister were prevented from commercially exploiting forest lands.
In its decision, the Court, which has already sentenced Sofia in the case in question in September 2021, states that Bulgaria “must pay the applicants a total amount of 1,635,875 euros as material compensation”.
The European Court of Human Rights, which was appealed by Simeon Borisov Saxkoburgotsky and Maria-Louisa Borisova Hrobok, a former princess, had then unanimously ruled that Bulgaria violated their right to property protection and their right to a fair trial. The decision was taken because of the moratorium on the transfer or commercial exploitation of restored assets and mainly concerned forest lands. The moratorium was imposed in 2009 and remains in place.
All Crown properties had been transferred to the State in 1947, following the declaration of the Republic of Bulgaria by the communist regime. But in 1998, this transfer was ruled against the law of property, and this led the former king and his sister to request the restoration of the Crown assets. This applied to most of the royal property, but at the same time the moratorium was imposed.
In its first ruling, the European Court of Human Rights had left pending the issue of just satisfaction pending an agreement between the claimants and the Bulgarian state.
But almost two years after the first ruling in 2021, the case remains pending before the Bulgarian courts and the European Court of Human Rights ruled again in favor of the former king and his sister, validating their claims of financial losses and deciding to pay “on an interim basis” more than €1.6 millionsubject to the completion of the pending procedure in Bulgaria.
Simeon II only remained on the throne for a few years when he was a child. Born in 1937, he ascended the throne in 1943 after his father’s death, only to abdicate in 1946. He returned from exile in 1996 and never renounced his Bulgarian nationality. He is the only former king in Europe who became prime minister of his country. A liberal centrist, he ruled from 2001 to 2005.
Source: News Beast
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