important matter of public life and a matter that significantly affects the State budget.
Therefore, the Saeima has a duty to draft and adopt a regulation that would settle this
matter in a lawful way.
The Constitutional Court, in turn, has a duty, within its terms of reference, to ensure
effective protection and restoration of the fundamental rights of the affected persons.
Neither the protection of the infringed rights, nor their restoration would be effective if
the Saeima did not fulfil its duty to establish a procedure for the reimbursement of the
deductions from pensions. The Constitutional Court decided that, in this Case, the
conclusions of this Judgment constitute the ground for the reimbursement in question,
which must be commenced on 1 March 2010 in such an amount and within such a
timeframe as the deductions have been made in accordance with the impugned
provisions, namely, a part of pension non-disbursed in one month should
correspondingly be reimbursed in one month.
The ECtHR, adjudicating the matters concerning the reimbursement of financial assets
unjustifiably withheld as a result of violation of rights established by the Convention,
has also concluded that persons are entitled to compensation within a reasonable
timeframe, taking into account the respective situation and commensurate interests
(see the ECtHR Judgments in the Cases: Lithgow v. UK, Judgment of 8 July 1986,
application no. 9006/80; 9262/81; 9263/81; 9265/81; 9266/81; 9313/81; 9405/81,
paras. 120-122; Guillemin v. France (Article 50), Judgment of 2 September 1998,
105/1995/611/699, para. 24; Jucys v. Lithuania, Judgment of 8 January 2008,
application no. 5457/03, paras. 37 and 39; Broniowski v. Poland, 2004-V; 43 EHRR
1, paras. 151 and 184 GC).
Deciding on the drafting and adoption of such a regulation, one should take into
account that, although the recipients of old-age pension constitute a special group, this
group is not uniform with respect to income, age and other aspects. It means that the
reimbursement of the deducted part of pension should be carried out within a
reasonable timeframe and, within limits, taking into account the different positions of
particular persons. Considering the economic situation in Latvia and the State budget,
the part of pensions withheld on the basis of the impugned provisions must be, in
accordance with the procedure established by the Saeima, reimbursed in full not later
than by 1 July 2015.
73
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