PROCEDURE

The case originated in an application (no. 28426/06) against the Kingdom of Sweden lodged with the Court under Article 34 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (“the Convention”) by a Swedish national, Ms Sonja Mendel (“the applicant”), on 28 June 2006.

The applicant was represented by Mr J. Södergren, a lawyer practising in Stockholm. The Swedish Government (“the Government”) were represented by their Agent, Mrs C. Hellner, of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs.

The applicant alleged that her right to access to a court according to Article 6 § 1 of the Convention had been violated since she had not been able to appeal to a court against a decision by an authority to withdraw permission for her to participate in a labour market policy programme. On the same ground, she argued that she had been denied the right to an effective remedy under Article 13 of the Convention.

On 12 December 2007 the President of the Third Section decided to give notice of the application to the Government. It was also decided to examine the merits of the application at the same time as its admissibility (Article 29 § 3).

THE FACTS

I. THE CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE CASE

The applicant was born in 1944 and lives in Malmö.

Since 1992 the applicant has been registered with the Employment Service (Arbetsförmedlingen) in Malmö and, since 2001, she has been taking part in different programmes provided by it. One of these programmes, called activity guarantee (aktivitetsgaranti), was a programme for persons who were, or who were at a risk of becoming, unemployed for a long period as well as for groups of persons who often had difficulties in finding a job. The purpose of the programme was to give the participants greater opportunities to find a job and it involved different activities such as short term education and the possibility to try different kinds of work. Each person who participated in the programme had a personal supervisor from the Employment Service and together they were supposed to set up a plan for the activities in which the participant was taking part. The participant was obliged to attend meetings and to meet his or her supervisor on a regular basis, and he or she also had an obligation to apply for suitable jobs which were advertised through the Employment Service.

On 4 July 2005 the Employment Service (apparently on delegation from the County Labour Board (Länsarbetsnämnden)) decided to withdraw its approval for the applicant to take part in the programme in which she was participating. The decision was taken in accordance with Section 37(a) of the Ordinance on Labour Market Policy Programmes (förordningen om arbetsmarknadspolitiska program, SFS 2000:634; hereafter “the 2000 Ordinance“). According to the Employment Service, the applicant had not been acting in a proper manner in relation to the demands laid upon her. The decision was taken on the basis of a report drawn up by the Employment Service. The report stated that the applicant had been called to attend information meetings on several occasions but that she had either announced that she was not able to attend or she had simply not attended. It also stated that the applicant, at an information meeting, had made statements that led to a job interview being cancelled.

When the applicant’s permission to participate in the programme was revoked, her subsistence support in the form of activity support (see § 18 below) was also revoked, leaving her without any income. According to the applicant this forced her to pay for living expenses out of her savings for nine months and to take 25% early retirement in September 2005.

On 21 July 2005 the applicant appealed against the decision of the Employment Service to the National Labour Market Board (Arbetsmark-nadsstyrelsen –hereafter “the Board”). She claimed that there were several statements in the report which were not true. For instance, she had been ill and hospitalised and therefore had not been able to attend certain meetings and she had informed the Employment Service about the situation. She also alleged that a note in the report which stated that on one occasion she had not attended a meeting was not true. Moreover, she claimed that, at the aforementioned information meeting, she had told an official of the Employment Service that she felt she was not suited for the job in question. Thereafter, the official had told her that she could leave.

On 29 March 2006 the Board decided to reject the appeal. It found that the applicant had, on several occasions in August and September 2004, announced that she was not able to attend certain meetings; on one occasion because she had planned to go on vacation. The Board took into account the possibilities to adapt the kind of work the applicant was offered, and the fact that she had not proved her medical problems or shown that they were of a permanent nature, and found that she had not done everything in her power to get a job. Therefore, the Board concluded that there were grounds to withdraw her entitlement to participate in the programme. Consequently, the appeal was rejected.

In the Board’s decision, it was expressly stated that there was no possibility in accordance with Section 39 of the 2000 Ordinance to appeal against the decision.

On 6 April 2006 the applicant wrote a letter to the Board, expressing her dissatisfaction with its decision. In the letter she referred, inter alia, to the fact that the Board in its decision had noted that no appeal lay against the decision and asked how she could obtain redress.

On 11 September 2006 the applicant submitted a complaint to the Chancellor of Justice (Justitiekanslern) where she complained, inter alia, about the authorities’ decisions and their handling of her case. She requested damages, but did not claim that there had been a breach of her rights under Article 6 of the Convention. This complaint seems still to be pending before the Chancellor of Justice.