SAVICKIS AND OTHERS v. LATVIA JUDGMENT
Article 14 of the Convention taken in conjunction with Article 1 of Protocol
No. 1 to the Convention.
D. The applicants’ requests subsequent to the Andrejeva judgment
1. Requests for administrative review
44. On 14 August 2009, following the delivery of the judgment in the
Andrejeva case, the first, second, fourth, and fifth applicants applied to the
State Social Insurance Agency seeking a recalculation of their pensions and
the inclusion of the employment and equivalent periods accrued in the
territory of the former USSR outside Latvia, as well as compensation for the
pecuniary damage sustained. As these requests were refused, the applicants
brought proceedings before the administrative courts, seeking the reopening
of the administrative proceedings related to their claims.
45. By final decisions of 20 November 2009, 27 November 2009, and
16 December 2009 the District Administrative Court (Administratīvā rajona
tiesa) dismissed the applicants’ requests. The District Administrative Court
declared that the Court’s judgment had been adopted only in respect of
Ms Andrejeva; conversely, no similar judgments had been given by the Court
with respect to any of the applicants in the present case. Furthermore,
reopening could not be based on an alleged change in the legal circumstances,
as the State had a margin of appreciation in deciding how to execute the
Strasbourg Court’s judgment. In particular, the District Administrative Court
pointed out that draft amendments to the State Pensions Act were pending
before Parliament and had been adopted at first reading. These amendments
proposed that the insurance periods accrued outside the territory of Latvia be
excluded from the calculation of pensions in respect of both Latvian citizens
and “permanently resident non-citizens”. The explanatory note to the draft
amendments argued that the Andrejeva judgment could be executed either by
including those periods in the calculation with respect to both of these groups
or by excluding them from the calculation entirely. As the inclusion of these
periods in the calculation of pensions for “permanently resident non-citizens”
was seen as contradicting the doctrine of continuity of the Latvian State
despite its occupation or annexation by foreign powers, a complete exclusion
was proposed. In view of these circumstances, the District Administrative
Court considered that only following the legislative amendments would it be
possible to speak of a change in legal circumstances warranting or justifying
the reopening of the administrative proceedings.
2. The Constitutional Court’s review
(a) Application before the Constitutional Court
46. On 5 March 2010, relying on the Court’s judgment in Andrejeva, the
first, second, fourth, and fifth applicants lodged an application with the
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