According to Article 50 of the European Convention on Human Rights the expenditure on the European Court of Human Rights is to be borne by the Council of Europe. Under present arrangements the Court does not have a separate budget, but its budget is part of the general budget of the Council of Europe. As such it is subject to the approval of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe in the course of their examination of the overall Council of Europe budget. The Council of Europe is financed by the contributions of the 47 member States, which are fixed according to scales taking into account population and gross national product.

The Court’s budget for 2013 amounts to 66.815.100 euros. This covers Judges’ remuneration, staff salaries and operational expenditure (information technology, official journeys, translation, interpretation, publications, representational expenditure, legal aid, fact-finding missions. etc). It does not include expenditure on the building and infrastructure (telephone, cabling. etc).

The Registry has a Budget and Finance Office, which deals with the day-to day management of the Court’s budget, under the authority of the Registrar.