SNS Ready to Resist 'Dictate' of Brussels on Land Sale
Bratislava, February 27 (TASR) – The co-governing Slovak National Party (SNS) on Monday stated that it disagrees with the scrapping of the protection period for the sale of Slovak land, adding that it’s ready to resist Brussels on the issue.
SNS claimed that foreign land speculators are likely to misuse the situation after the protection period is cancelled. The party noted that an amendment to the Constitution due to be debated soon at its second reading in Parliament should provide more effective protection of Slovak land from foreign corporations.
“The amendment draft was passed to its second reading with the support of 112 votes and almost all caucuses in January,” said SNS press department director Julia Kollarova concerning the bill, which was submitted by SNS chairman Andrej Danko and MPs Eva Antosova, Jaroslav Paska and Tibor Bernatak.
According to SNS, the Agriculture and Rural Development Ministry is currently facing pressure from Brussels, which is forcing Slovakia to adopt speedily a set of legislative measures allowing large-scale unregulated purchases of Slovak agricultural land from private individuals and companies by foreign investors before the constitutional amendment on land protection can enter into force.
Kollarova noted that SNS is ready to “resist the dictate of Brussels on this issue”.
“The current legislation views land as being like any other goods. We deem this inappropriate, however, so we’ve set about dealing with the issue,” said Antosova.
If the amendment is adopted, Article 44 of the Slovak Constitution will define land as “a non-renewable natural resource that is subject to special protection by the state and society”.
Meanwhile, MP Paska pointed out that Chinese, American, German and French companies have been especially active as of late in buying up swathes of land in various parts of the world, so the state must prevent large-scale sales of Slovak land that would possibly damage the interests of the Slovak public.
