The problem of compensating those whose assets were seized by the communist regime is far from solved, and lawyers and their clients are at the end of their wits. The state's shares in the Proprietatea Fund have been exhausted, and the law which everyone is waiting for has yet to appear.
Florentin Timoianu, a partner at law firm Rubin Meyer Doru&Trandafir, involved in the retrocession of the Bran Castle, told us that there are cases that are still unsolved which go back to the time when the restitution laws first appeared.
"We have restitution cases which have yet to be solved after 10 - 11 years. It will most likely take a few more years for some of them to be solved", the lawyer said.
Valentina - Violeta Topor, who runs her own law firm and also works with VMC Legal Consulting, mentions the same problem: there are people who are still waiting to be compensated, 11 years later. Some of them are not even alive anymore.
* Valentina-Violeta Topor: Only 20% of the total number of compensation cases were solved, on a national level
The authorities have only solved 20% of the total number of retrocession cases on a nationwide level, said Valentina-Violeta Topor.
According to the law no. 10/2001 (amended through the law no. 247/2005, which was later rectified as well), the people entitled to compensation need to submit their cases with the mayoralties, which in turn would send them to the prefecture, together with the decision for awarding compensation, for the issue of the legality certificate. In the end, the cases arrive at the Central Commission for the Setting of the Rewards of the National Authority for the Restitution of Properties (ANRP), which makes the final decision.
The problem is that in most cases, the plaintiff's cases are either being bounced around between the mayoralties, the prefectures, and the Central Commissi