11
submitted an action plan or report upon expiry of this new time-limit and offers no explanation of
this situation to the Committee of Ministers, the Secretariat is instructed to propose that the
question be examined in detail by the Committee of Ministers under the enhanced procedure
3
.
Compliance with the time-limit for submitting information in complex situations
Structural and/or complex problems call, for the most part, for a longer period of reflection to
identify optimal solutions and make a proper evaluation of the time needed to implement them. The
question which therefore arises is what the content of the “General Measures” section will be in the
initial action plan, including as regards the indicative timetable.
In such a situation, the authorities are not expected to submit an initial action plan containing actual
measures of execution, as they have not yet been identified. On the other hand, the action plan will
need to indicate the steps taken by the authorities to identify those measures.
The same applies to the indicative timetable. This will not be a timetable for implementation of the
measures which are supposed to result in execution of the judgment, but a “roadmap” for the
reflection undertaken by the authorities at national level as the first stage in the execution process
(setting up of a group of experts to analyse the situation, approximate timeframe for this group to
deliver its conclusions, etc.).
Updating the initial action plan
The idea underlying the system of continuous monitoring put in place by the twin-track supervision
procedure
4
is that the Committee of Ministers should be able to follow the progress of the execution
process through regular updating of the action plan.
The action plan must be updated as soon as there are any significant developments in the adoption
of the measures planned. This will involve presenting the measures implemented since the
submission of the previous version of the action plan together with an assessment of their impact. In
this way, the action plan will gradually evolve into the action report, on the basis of which the
Committee of Ministers will be able to decide to end its supervision.
It should be emphasised in this context that it is unnecessary to present an update for every
development in the execution process, but it is important to inform the Committee of Ministers of
any significant advances in the process. It is also necessary to ensure transparency with regard to
any problems or obstacles encountered in the implementation of the action plan and indicate the
solutions envisaged for overcoming those difficulties. Out of the same concern for transparency, the
authorities might wish to include in their updates certain comments made in submissions from NGOs
and the replies given
5
.
To aid understanding, it is useful to ensure that the updated action plan retains as far as possible the
structure of the initial plan. It is also desirable for the respondent state to set out all the up-to-date
information in a single document, without references to earlier communications. If, in exceptional
cases, it prefers to supplement its action plan with a separate communication, it is important to
ensure that this communication is followed as soon as possible by the submission of a consolidated
3
See section IV of information document CM/Inf/DH(2010)45final.
4
In this procedure, all cases are permanently on the agenda of the Committee of Ministers (an order of business specifying
the cases on which the Committee of Ministers will focus at a given meeting).
5
In accordance with the Rules of the Committee of Ministers for the supervision of the execution of judgments and of the
terms of friendly settlements (see Rule 9.3), communications from NGOs are brought to the attention of the Committee of
Ministers together with any observations of the delegation concerned provided that the latter are transmitted to the
Secretariat within five working days of having been notified of such communication. Even if they have not replied to the
NGOs’ submissions within the prescribed time-limit, the authorities can still do so by means of a separate communication
submitted after the expiry of that time-limit or in the next updating of the action plan.