The PanSlovenian Shareholders' and Investors' Association (VZMD) welcomes the fact that the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Slovenia finally completed the constitutional review of the legal regulation of the expropriation of holders of Slovenian banks' subordinate bonds and stocks on October 27, 2016; it recognized two articles of this regulation (Article 350.a of the ZBan-1 and Article 265 of the ZRPPB) as unconstitutional since the expropriated persons were deprived of the right to efficient judicial protection (Article 23 of the Constitution of the Republic of Slovenia). The review was triggered by an initiative written by the lawyer Mr. Miha Kunič and the prime mover of the initiative Mr. Tadej Kotnik, member of the VZMD Expert Council, on behalf of the 158 expropriated natural persons.
On December 16, 2013, this initiative for the constitutional review (submitted on December 4, 2013) prompted the Ombudsman of the Republic of Slovenia to promote it to a request for the constitutional review; consequently the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Slovenia accepted the request for adjudication as an absolutely priority case. Yesterday (on Thursday, October 27, 2016), the Constitutional Court decided that the provisions of the Banking Act, enforced on November 23, 2013 and implemented through strictly confidential decisions of the Bank of Slovenia in the night from December 17 to December 18, 2013, violated Article 23 of the Constitution of the Republic of Slovenia; it also ordered the National Assembly to remedy the established unconstitutionality by adopting a legal regulation which will ensure an efficient judicial protection of the expropriated persons. It thereby agreed with the VZMD initiative's stance, i.e. that Article 350.a of the ZBan-1 is unconstitutional.
The Constitutional Court's decision was commented on by the VZMD President, Mr. Kristjan Verbič, with the following words: "The VZMD understands that the Constitutional Court did not deliberate on concrete decisions of the Bank of Slovenia or whether these decisions violated the expropriated persons' rights; the object of the review was only the act itself, whereas the decisions and encroachments on the right resulting from the decisions themselves will be proven (in accordance with the Constitutional Court's instructions) in concrete proceedings before the competent courts."
In the spirit of "staying generous when winning" sentiment, the VZMD opted not to emphasize the length of the duration of an absolutely priority case (1,045 days), nor the numerous accusations written and said in the last three years against the VZMD, calling them liars, manipulators and hysterics due to their warning that the provisions in the secret valuations, to which they had no access, were unconstitutional. The VZMD's only wish is that the subversive discrediting campaign, which has been designed, promoted and motivated for over two years by the head of the self-proclaimed "domestic troika", will finally come to an end due to the Constitutional Court's decision.
With the Constitutional Court's decision, the VZMD expects the Government of the Republic of Slovenia, whose leading party was elected on a platform of promising the respect of constitutional rights, to finally realize that the Bank of Slovenia's claims on the legal acceptability of its secret and autocratic actions cannot be believed blindly. They also hope that the National Assembly of the Republic of Slovenia will follow the Constitutional Court's instructions within the set deadlines, and replace its current arbitrariness with taking account of well-founded warnings by other national authorities and expert public.
CONSTITUTIONAL COURT - VZMD also lodged a proposal for the temporary decree for PROHIBITING THE SALE OF Nova KBM bank - to prevent direct damage to the Republic of Slovenia and its citizens
STRESS TESTS – new and obvious proof of the extremely unequal adjudication of Slovenian banks – are they guilty in Brussels or Ljubljana, and what are their motives? The PanSlovenian Shareholders' Association (VZMD) has called on the Bank of Slovenia (BA) and the European Central Bank (ECB) to explain, why only in Slovenia are we left to use »static« and extremely pessimistic assumptions, while in other countries and banks of the EU fresh data and »dynamic« valuations are used and even allow for