Ader raises concerns over land compensation amendment

Budapest, June 17 (MTI) – Hungary’s President Janos Ader has returned to lawmakers an amendment of the laws in connection with compensation for land confiscated during the communist era.

Ader said in a letter published on Parliament’s website on Friday that according to its justification the law aimed at bringing the land compensation process in Hungary to an end and help farmers to land through the state’s new land programme. It modifies other laws, including the one on cooperatives, in a way that land held by cooperative land funds could be transferred into state ownership.

Ader criticised this latter part of the changes, noting that it is not specified how much land the state would take over from cooperatives. There are different types of land funds in which members own land and their pre-emption rights must be established so that their ownership rights are not violated, Ader said. The president also raised concern over the possibility of the state and the National Land Fund gaining ownership of nature reserves which are now in use by cooperatives.

The amendment was passed by Parliament on June 7 in a vote of 127 to 37 with 27 abstentions.

Source: http://mtva.hu/hu/hungary-matter