Cegolea v. Romania, No. 25560/13, ECtHR (Fourth Section), 24 March 2020

Prohibition of discrimination and presence of an admissibility requirement that disadvantages national minority organizations not yet represented in Parliament.

Art. 14 ECHR
Art. 3 Prot. 1 ECHR
 

1. The provision of a further type of eligibility requirement in order to obtain the association status of a national minority and as such have the right to nominate one's own representatives for the seats reserved for minorities in Parliament constitutes a violation of art. 14 ECHR in conjunction with art. 3, Prot. 1 ECHR.

2. An increase in the requirements for obtaining association status with respect to national minority organizations that have already obtained it and whose representatives can stand as candidates for the Parliamentary Assembly constitutes discrimination, as there are no objective and reasonable reasons for this differentiated treatment.

(In the specific case, the applicant had been denied the possibility of running for parliamentary elections, as a member of a national minority, only because the registration of the organization to which she belonged was denied in the absence of specific and further requirements not previously provided for by national legislation).