The office of Croatia's representative before the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) reported on Thursday that on 1 December the court had published its decision on the inadmissibility of a request in the case of OTP Bank et al against Croatia, which it delivered on 8 November. Pročitaj više

OTP Bank, Raiffeisenbank Austria, Erste&Steiermarkische Bank, Privredna Banka Zagreb, and Addiko Bank filed lawsuits before the European Court of Human Rights for a violation of the right to a fair trial before national courts.

The banks objected under Article 6. of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms that they did not have a fair trial in the cases in which they were the defendants, and in which the national courts decided in the dispute to protect the collective interests and the rights of holders of loans denominated in the Swiss franc, Croatia’s representative at the ECHR, Stefica Staznik, said in a press release.

The press release further notes that the banks claimed that their rights to a fair trial were violated, among other things, because the Supreme Court refused to act on their review and refer a previous question to the Court of the European Union in Luxembourg on the application of EU law.

Ruling on this objection, the ECHR found that the Supreme Court gave a detailed and reasonable justification for its decision not to address the previous question to the Court of the European Union in Luxembourg and that this was sufficient to satisfy the rights and standards under Article 6 of the Convention, according to the press release.

As for the question of the application of EU law in the specific case, the ECHR referred to its earlier findings, saying that it cannot rule on the merits of this issue.