What the European Court of Human Rights has cost Romania, and what it has not fixed: every judgment, 1998–2026

What Romania has not fixed: 73 leading cases still under supervision

When the Court condemns a State, the Council of Europe's Committee of Ministers checks whether the State removes the cause, not only whether it pays. A "leading case", the first judgment that exposes a problem, stays open until the Committee is satisfied with changed laws, practices or institutions. Of 346 such cases against Romania, 73 are still open: 19 for more than ten years, and half for more than 6.4 years. The closed ones took a median of 4.4 years.

Each bar starts in the year the judgment became final and runs to today. Those marked "enhanced supervision" are problems the Committee considers structural or complex.

1. Restitution of nationalised homes and land does not workProperty · 201115.8 yrs
2. Ineffective investigations into the crackdowns of 1989 and the early 1990sCriminal investigations: violence, abuse, deaths · 201114.9 yrs
3. Overcrowded psychiatric hospitals and poor carePsychiatric care and vulnerable people · 201214.4 yrs
4. Cancer treatment ordered by the courts but not providedCourts and justice · 201214.3 yrs
5. Involuntary psychiatric placement without safeguardsPsychiatric care and vulnerable people · 201214.1 yrs
6. A whistle-blower convicted for exposing illegal surveillanceExpression and religion · 201313.5 yrs
7. Psychiatric placement without real representation in the proceedingsPsychiatric care and vulnerable people · 201313.4 yrs
8. Prisoners with mental illness without adequate carePsychiatric care and vulnerable people · 201412.8 yrs
9. Court cases that last too long, with no remedyCourts and justice · 201412.7 yrs
10. The State does not pay or obey court rulings against itselfCourts and justice · 201412.5 yrs
11. Vulnerable people in institutions without protection or carePsychiatric care and vulnerable people · 201412.3 yrs
12. Gaps in the law on involuntary psychiatric placementPsychiatric care and vulnerable people · 201411.9 yrs
13. Inadequate medical care and unlawful detention in police custodyPrisons and custody · 201511.5 yrs
14. Phone taps that the people overheard cannot challengePrivate life, family, children · 201511.5 yrs
15. Prison conditions and a refused dental prosthesisPrisons and custody · 201610.5 yrs
16. Medical negligence: ineffective criminal investigations after deathsCriminal investigations: violence, abuse, deaths · 201610.4 yrs
17. Victims who cannot claim damages once a criminal case is droppedCourts and justice · 201610.4 yrs
18. Rape investigations involving children, without care for the victimCriminal investigations: violence, abuse, deaths · 201610.4 yrs
19. An attack, possibly homophobic, not properly investigatedCriminal investigations: violence, abuse, deaths · 201610.3 yrs
20. Overcrowded prisons and police cells (the 2017 pilot judgment)Prisons and custody · 20179.2 yrs
21. A domestic-violence victim the authorities did not protectCriminal investigations: violence, abuse, deaths · 20179.2 yrs
22. A civil conviction for expressing an opinionExpression and religion · 20179.1 yrs
23. Disproportionate confiscation of undeclared goods at the borderProperty · 20179.0 yrs
24. Domestic violence against a child prosecuted too slowlyCriminal investigations: violence, abuse, deaths · 20188.8 yrs
25. Psychiatric detention under the Criminal Code, extended without safeguardsPsychiatric care and vulnerable people · 20188.7 yrs
26. A terminally ill prisoner kept in prisonPrisons and custody · 20188.7 yrs
27. Frozen embryos seized in a criminal case and not returnedPrivate life, family, children · 20188.5 yrs
28. Secret detention and extraordinary rendition of a detainee (the CIA prison)Prisons and custody · 20188.0 yrs
29. Child custody orders not enforcedPrivate life, family, children · 20187.9 yrs
30. No way to set visiting rights during a divorcePrivate life, family, children · 20187.9 yrs
31. Priests convicted for holding services without their church's approvalExpression and religion · 20197.7 yrs
32. Rape investigations that demand proof of physical resistanceCriminal investigations: violence, abuse, deaths · 20197.6 yrs
33. Prisoners without access to compulsory schoolingPrisons and custody · 20197.6 yrs
34. A police raid on a Roma community, based on ethnicityCriminal investigations: violence, abuse, deaths · 20197.5 yrs
35. A privatised company the State did not compensateProperty · 20197.0 yrs
36. A psychiatric patient stopped from attending a parent's funeralPsychiatric care and vulnerable people · 20206.8 yrs
37. Prisoners refused leave to attend close relatives' funeralsPrivate life, family, children · 20206.4 yrs
38. Domestic and online violence not investigatedCriminal investigations: violence, abuse, deaths · 20206.4 yrs
39. Contact with a child restricted because of a mental illnessPrivate life, family, children · 20206.3 yrs
40. Minority organisations outside Parliament discriminated against at electionsVotes and elections · 20206.3 yrs
41. Gender reassignment without clear rulesPrivate life, family, children · 20215.5 yrs
42. Long and intrusive surveillancePrivate life, family, children · 20215.4 yrs
43. Homophobic attacks at an LGBT march, without protection or investigationPrivate life, family, children · 20215.1 yrs
44. Sick prisoners under maximum-security regimePrisons and custody · 20215.1 yrs
45. Psychiatric detention under the Criminal Code without minimum safeguardsPsychiatric care and vulnerable people · 20215.0 yrs
46. Excessive force by State agentsCriminal investigations: violence, abuse, deaths · 20215.0 yrs
47. A special exchange rate imposed on a company, cutting the value of its claimProperty · 20215.0 yrs
48. A mandate ended by Parliament with no right to challenge itCourts and justice · 20215.0 yrs
49. Vulnerable people without legal protectionPsychiatric care and vulnerable people · 20224.7 yrs
50. A prisoner barred from voting because of where he is heldVotes and elections · 20224.7 yrs
51. Unfair civil proceedings (equality of arms)Courts and justice · 20224.5 yrs
52. An elderly disabled man left without a personal assistant by a court rulingPrivate life, family, children · 20224.5 yrs
53. Fees of court-appointed lawyers cut without clear rulesProperty · 20224.3 yrs
54. A company's compensation refused under unclear rulesProperty · 20224.2 yrs
55. A badly planned police operation that ended in a deathCriminal investigations: violence, abuse, deaths · 20223.9 yrs
56. Sexual harassment at work, investigated superficiallyCriminal investigations: violence, abuse, deaths · 20223.9 yrs
57. No real way to claim compensation for medical negligenceCourts and justice · 20233.7 yrs
58. Held in detention after serving his sentence abroadPrisons and custody · 20233.7 yrs
59. Convicted on appeal without the judges hearing the witnessesCourts and justice · 20233.6 yrs
60. Access to court blocked by unclear rulesCourts and justice · 20233.6 yrs
61. Restitution of confiscated property still does not work (2023)Property · 20233.6 yrs
62. No legal recognition for same-sex couplesPrivate life, family, children · 20233.1 yrs
63. A mother and children not protected from domestic violenceCriminal investigations: violence, abuse, deaths · 20232.9 yrs
64. Sexual abuse of a child by her father, ineffectively investigatedCriminal investigations: violence, abuse, deaths · 20242.8 yrs
65. Protected forests with no compensation for their ownersProperty · 20242.7 yrs
66. Private correspondence breached by an employer, without protectionPrivate life, family, children · 20242.5 yrs
67. A child's residence decided without weighing the child's interestPrivate life, family, children · 20242.5 yrs
68. Acquittal of officers convicted of Holocaust-related crimesCourts and justice · 20242.3 yrs
69. Online violence without criminal-law protectionPrivate life, family, children · 20251.6 yrs
70. A civil conviction for Facebook commentsExpression and religion · 20251.5 yrs
71. Searches of a company's computers without reviewPrivate life, family, children · 20251.3 yrs
72. A judge disciplined for public statementsExpression and religion · 20250.9 yrs
73. International child abduction: the law wrongly appliedPrivate life, family, children · 20260.6 yrs

Prisons: judgments every year, until 2024

For prison conditions, between 2016 and 2025 the Court usually awarded €3,000 per person; half of the 4,468 detainees compensated received between €3,000 and €4,500. The sums are small; until 2024 their number did not fall.

The first group of prison cases started from a judgment that became final in 2008 (the Committee closed it in December 2025; new cases go to the 2017 group). In the five years after it, the Committee received 49 repetitive cases in that group; in 2021–2025, 59 (the difference may be chance). The 2017 pilot judgment, which demanded a timetable of measures against overcrowding, has been followed by 101 repetitive cases up to 2025. From 2012 to 2024 the Court issued between 25 and 134 judgments and settlements with a payment for detention conditions every year; in 2025, only two. Strike-outs of complaints the applicants stopped pursuing went on (40 in 2025, as in earlier years), but judgments with a payment almost disappeared; the data read here do not say why. For property, the group opened in 2004 received 162 cases in its first five years and 4 in 2021–2025, and the Committee closed it in December 2025; new restitution cases go to the 2011 and 2023 groups and increasingly arrive as large judgments joining dozens of applications (21 cases with a payment in 2021–2025, 11 in 2026 alone).

Property: 50% of the unconditional money and 99.7% of the conditional money

Most large sums follow one pattern. A Romanian court recognised someone's right to a nationalised house or plot, and the State did not hand it back, or sold it to someone else. The Court then ordered restitution and, "failing such restitution", payment of the value. Those sums, €145 million in all, are not owed if the State returns the property; the Committee of Ministers still counts them in its totals. That is why the figure usually quoted for "what Romania pays" depends on what you count.

For property, the unconditional sums (non-pecuniary damage, costs, the value of goods that can no longer be returned) come to €32.7 million. The restitution mechanism has been under supervision since 2011, after the pilot judgment that gave Romania 18 months to make it work; the Court’s first judgment on the problem dates from 1999.

What was actually paid: €119 million up to 2023

The Ministry of Finance supplied, through a Foreign Ministry answer to a Senate question (7 March 2024), the sums paid each year for ECtHR judgments and decisions: 527.7 million lei from 1998 to 2023, about €119 million at each year's average rate. Payments lag the judgments and include some of the "failing restitution" sums: the amount paid is above the unconditional total and below the total including conditional sums.

The yearly totals here were compared with those the Committee of Ministers publishes (annual reports 2008–2025, on a close basis: judgments that became final that year, including the alternative value of restitution; the Committee converts other currencies at the 31 December rate, here at the year’s average). For 2008–2025 the total rebuilt here is €179 million, against €181 million in the Committee's reports (−0.9%); no year differs by more than 19%.

Until 2009 the Committee counted judgments only, so for those years the Committee-basis total leaves out the friendly settlements included in the first two columns.

What was tested, before anything was counted

The hypotheses and the stopping rules were written down and sealed with a cryptographic fingerprint before any sum was read from the judgments, and again before any result per problem. The results, including the hypotheses that failed:

How sure are the numbers

• The sum was read from all 1,575 judgments with a payment (revisions aside) and from 1,057 of the 1,136 friendly settlements and unilateral declarations (the rest state no sum); a hand check of 54 randomly drawn cases found one error; two independent reviews then found further reading errors (conditional sums counted as unconditional, revisions, breakdowns added twice), all fixed before publication.
• If all 17 appendix cells without a breakdown were counted as unconditional, the strict total would rise to €68.6 million: still below the €100m line.
• In today's euros (euro-area inflation), the unconditional sum is worth €81.5 million, still below the €100m line.
• Revision judgments (66) are not added a second time: the sum of the revised judgment stands.

The data: download it, check it

The file has one row for every judgment and decision that could involve money (4,159 rows), with the sums broken down, the problem, the article violated and the HUDOC identifier (which leads to the Court's official text). It holds no names and no application numbers. Licence CC BY 4.0; source: HUDOC and HUDOC-EXEC, Council of Europe.

Download the data (CSV) Column dictionary

Same series: Romania's protection orders, court by court.

Method, in brief

The judgments and decisions against Romania were downloaded from HUDOC, the Court's database (1,939 judgments and 2,220 strike-out decisions), and the execution record from HUDOC-EXEC, the Committee of Ministers' database (2,234 supervised cases). The sums were read from the operative part of each judgment and from its appendices, per person, and converted to euros at the rate the judgment gives or the year's average.

A sum is "unconditional" when it must be paid in any event; it is "conditional" when the Court let the State choose between returning the property and paying its value. Each case's problem comes from the Committee of Ministers' codes; for friendly settlements without a code, from the complaint described in the decision (hand check: 27 of 30 correct, then fixed).

The time from filing to judgment was read for 1,381 of 1,575 judgments with a payment. Sums "per person" come from appendices with one applicant per row and from single-applicant judgments.

Limits of the data

• "Conditional" sums are not spending: if the State returned the property, they were not paid.
• The Ministry of Finance payment data stop in March 2024 and are not broken down by case.
• "Open" problems are those still supervised by the Committee of Ministers on 22 October 2026; a closed problem means the Committee accepted the State's measures, not that nobody suffers any more.
• The card for each kind of complaint describes what the Court awarded in past cases. It is not a prediction for any one case and it is not legal advice.

Sources

• HUDOC, the European Court of Human Rights database
• HUDOC-EXEC, execution of judgments (Committee of Ministers)
• Committee of Ministers, annual reports on the execution of judgments, 2007–2025
• Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, answer to Senate question no. 30900 (7 March 2024), with Ministry of Finance payments
• European Court of Human Rights, judgment of 7 January 2025 on just satisfaction in restitution cases (the Borșa forest application)
• National Bank of Romania, annual average exchange rates
• Eurostat, harmonised index of consumer prices, euro area (prc_hicp_aind)