Case of St. Joseph Cathedral goes to the ECHR

The Millennium Real Estate Company, the one that built the 18-story building next to the St. Joseph Cathedral in Bucharest, filed a complaint against the Romanian state with the ECHR.

The company denounced the decision of the Romanian justice to cancel the building permit for the Cathedral Plaza.

French lawyer Ron Soffer, hired to represent the Millennium Building in ECHR, said that Romanian laws on which the Romanian justice took contradictory decisions on the Cathedral Plaza case, were not clear and predictable.

‘I believe that in this case, the lack of proportionality is obvious. To destroy or try to demolish a building of 18 floors because of a technical dispute about who is or is not entitled to give authorization for construction is a fact that the ECHR does not accept it’, Ron Soffer said.

The complaint was submitted to the ECHR on 11 January this year and according to procedures, over five years will pass until a decision is taken.

Meanwhile, the completed building will not be used for holding offices.

Until then though, the Bucharest Court must decide on another case, which the Roman Catholic Archdiocese opened with the support of the General City Hall and in which it demands the demolition of the building and, therefore, the decision of cancelling the construction permit be implemented.

Translated by: Iulia Florescu
MA Student, MTTLC, Bucharest University