farmland sales

Socialists Support Calls To Convene Parliamentary Session On Farmland Issues

Budapest, April 17 (MTI) – The opposition Socialists will support calls by the green opposition LMP party to convene an extraordinary parliamentary session over farmland issues.

“The scandals regularly surrounding state land leases, the fact that the land law and related laws are inadequate and impossible to enforce” justify calling such a session as soon as possible, the party told MTI today.

Parliament should modify the Land Act because it fails to meet the needs of agricultural players and leaseholders, it added.

LMP on Tuesday proposed that a two-day extraordinary session of parliament should be held to debate the protection of Hungarian farmland on April 24-25. The opposition E-PM and the radical nationalist Jobbik party have both supported the initiative.

Photo: pannonrtv.com

EP Elections – LMP And Jobbik Would Lobby To Protect Hungarian Farmland

Budapest, April 15 (MTI) – The small opposition LMP party has proposed that a two-day extraordinary session of parliament should be convened to discuss the protection of Hungarian farmland, Bernadett Szel, the party’s lawmaker said. The radical nationalist Jobbik said on Tuesday that no other party can guarantee that Hungary’s farmland remains in use by local communities and does not fall into the hands of oligarchs, foreigners and speculators.

LMP

Szel told a press conference on Tuesday that together with independent lawmaker Jozsef Angyan the party has initiated an extraordinary session for April 24-25 and it is collecting supporting signatures from lawmakers.

She said that LMP considers farmland the most important of Hungary’s natural resources and rural development as a priority area. The new Land Act to come into effect on May 1 will not provide sufficient guarantees to reduce the excessive importance that industrial agriculture receives against small and medium-sized farms at the moment, while in LMP’s view the latter should be strengthened. The new law contains loopholes which make it possible to create farms without any limit to size, she insisted.

Tamas Meszerics, who heads LMP’s list of candidates in the European elections, told the same press conference that this issue can best be dealt with in the framework of the European Union in the long run. All Hungarian political parties should support a proposal to exclude farmland from the scope of regulations on the free movement of capital, he added.

JOBBIK

Jobbik deputy Zoltan Magyar told a press conference that the expiry of a moratorium on foreigners buying Hungarian land in May poses great danger. Parliament has only two weeks left to pass legislation that could prevent foreigners from “plundering” Hungarian land, he added.

He called for a founding meeting of the new parliament without delay.

He added that the past five-year term of the EP has proven that Hungary cannot rely on its government-party politicians in Brussels while the left-wing was primarily occupied with launching attacks against Hungary in the EU. Jobbik wants to have arable land removed from the chapter regulating the free movement of capital and keep it protected by special regulations, he added.

Magyar also criticised Fidesz’s attitude in connection with an organic farm in Kishantos in central Hungary, stating that its exemplary achievements, even on a European scale, deserve to be protected by all possible means.

Photo: MTI

Ministry examines farmland contracts in Western Hungary

(MTI) – The rural development ministry suspects thousands of “pocket contracts” in Veszprem County in western Hungary, daily Magyar Nemzet said on Tuesday.

Scrutiny has fallen on around 4,600 agreements on suspicion that ownership of farmland was surreptitiously transferred to foreigners, the ministry’s state secretary, Gyula Budai, told the paper.

Government officials are also reviewing suspicious contracts in the other western counties of Zala, Vas and Gyor-Sopron.

An inter-ministerial committee established to review the contracts will meet on Thursday, the paper said.

Many private contracts for the use of Hungarian farmland were signed when foreigners were forbidden from buying it. The ban on purchasing land will be lifted from May but the old “pocket contracts” are not recognised under Hungary’s new land law.

Austria has complained about the law, insisting their farmers have the right to make use of land and profit from it under previous agreements.

Photo: www.diosdifidesz.hu

Jobbik appeals election cttee rejection of referendum over farmland ownership

Budapest, March 21 (MTI) – The radical nationalist Jobbik party will submit an appeal to the Kuria, Hungary’s supreme court, against the National Election Committee’s (NVI) refusal of its referendum initiative on keeping farmland in Hungarian hands, a party lawmaker said today.

Zoltan Magyar told a press conference that NVI’s Thursday decision was scandalous.

Jobbik’s proposal could make the government initiate talks about a review of the European Union accession treaty with a view to keeping farmland in Hungarian hands, he said. The referendum would not be conducive to cancelling the accession agreement, he added.

Magyar said the NVI decision was made under government pressure, adding that the committee should have assessed the initiative more carefully. All the more so because in Lithuanian the same question would be put to a referendum this autumn, he said.

NVI said on Thursday that the question proposed for the referendum would impinge on an international agreement. Head of the committee Andras Patyi and the majority of members said the question could not be authenticated because it affected the Treaty of Lisbon.

Jobbik leader Gabor Vona submitted the initiative in January. In the referendum, voters would be asked if they wished to see Hungary’s accession agreement with the European Union amended to allow farmland in Hungary to be exclusively owned by the state, Hungarian religious organisations or Hungarian private individuals residing in the country.

Photo: jobbik.hu

Election committee rejects Jobbik’s call for referendum over farmland ownership

Fidesz

Budapest, March 20 (MTI) – The National Election Committee refused on Thursday a proposal by the radical nationalist Jobbik party to hold a referendum on keeping farmland in Hungarian hands.

The committee said the question proposed for the referendum would impinge on an international agreement. The decision is not final and can be appealed at the Kuria, Hungary’s supreme court.

Jobbik leader Gabor Vona submitted the initiative in January. In the referendum, voters would be asked if they wished to see Hungary’s accession agreement with the European Union amended to allow farmland in Hungary to be exclusively owned by the state, Hungarian religious organisations or Hungarian private individuals residing in the country.

Head of the committee Andras Patyi and the majority of members said the question could not be authenticated because it affected the Treaty of Lisbon.

Others, including Jobbik delegate Andrea Borbely, argued that the aim of the initiative would be to urge the government and parliament to take action with the European Union. The referendum would provide an opportunity and a mandate for the government to negotiate, she said.

Photo: paksihirnok.hu