Presentation Porubanova Austria

Twinning Conference Slovenia – Hungary – Slovakia – Czech Republic Vienna 7 October 2004 th

“Situation of the protection of the landowners´ rights in Slovakia“ Situácia v ochrane vlastníckych práv majiteľov pôdy na Slovensku Dr. Porubänová: The Asssociation of Landownwers and AgroEntrepreneurs of Slovakia

The renewing of the landowners rights in Slovakia has began since 1991 with so called „ the law about the land „ number 229/1991 Zb. The law enabled to return the ownership to the owners, who lost the ownership of the land and the other property in the wake of confiscation mostly in 1950. It is about returning of the ownership in two categories :  ownership rights to the land and to the movable and immovable property •

the only condition of their admission was the Slovak nationality and permanent residence (stay) in Slovakia (the foreign Slovaks were excluded)

 users rights to the land and to the movable and immovable property (this category of the ownership didn,t lose the landownership rights •

previous users of the land ( agriculture cooperatives and other legal persons had the duty to conclude the rent contracts with the land owners

The landowners had become the participants so called transformation of the property of the agriculture cooperatives according to the transformation law nr. 42/1991 Zb. The condition was to apply in writing for the property from the transformation. The transformation law. The agricultural cooperatives were obliged to divide their property in / in accordance with the following ratio: • 50 % of the property is bound to the soil • 30 % is bound to machinery and animals / livestock • 20 % as a compensation for the years of work in the cooperative This is the way how the owners of the soil eventually became owners of cooperatives´ shares with regard to the put / brought in land area, livestock and dead stock or membership in the cooperative. (The ratio of non-members to members according to the Food and Agriculture Research Institute of Economy in Bratislava being 70/30).

The law about the land „ number 229/1991 Zb enabled the revival of the farm/-er profession for the first time since 1950. Landowners had two options: • to terminate land rental contract with cooperative and set up a business, i.e. become a farmer. In such a case a cooperative, as an up to now / previous land “user“ had been obliged to hand over cooperative´s share “in natura“ within 90 days since requested to do so. • to renew / prolong the rental contract with a cooperative – an existing user. In this case a cooperatives have not been forced to issue/return the shares of land to the owner. This could be returned only after 7 years. However, the amendment of the transformation law changed these proprietory shares /in natura/ to securities/shares, so called “cooperative share certificate“ registered in Central Securities Depository.

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The worst situation turned out to be for landowners, who rented it to / did not retrieve it from cooperatives (appr. 80%). Proprietory shares converted into shares are not negotiable in the stock exchange and are of uncertain value. Only 30 % of the total value of shares belonging to shareholders are registered in the Central Securities Depository in Bratislava /SCP/ till now (the lack of the law respect from the side of the cooperatives). • In respect of this fact, The Ministry of Agriculture prepared the amendment of the Transformation law, where the rightfull person on the cooperative´s transformation / property shares, are allowed to give the agriculture cooperative to bankruptcy, if their rights / claim wil not be satisfied within the certain period. • Land resources in Slovakia are typical for its fragmentation / disintegration. Heritage process of the land was governed according to the Hungarian law (Austro-Hungarian Empire).

The current problems of the landowners •

Users of the land / agriculture cooperatives pay very low rent for the land or don´t pay at all. The reason is the frequent bankruptcy proceedings, but very often caused artificially, in order to get rid of their commitments. • the landowners, who decided to cancel the rent agreement with the agricultural cooperatives / previous user, have to face some problems: • Mutual consent has to be reached / owner and user / because the land in question is not the one originally registered in land register / cadaster (it´s just substitute land). The coop tendency is to give the land of worse quality and worse shape of parcels. • Nowadays there are the serious obstacles from the part of the Ministry of Agriculture / Regional Land Offices, which are in charge to measure the land. Since the beginning of the January 2004 the Regional Land Offices didn´t get the financial funds for this purpose. We have contacted the Minister of Agriculture Mr. Zsolt SIMON who has promised to meet the case.

The problems to be solved •

The Law about Land Rental No. 504/2003 Zb that came into force on 1st January 2004 allows users to rent the rented land to another user. His only duty is to announce this fact to the owner. This fact is not in accordance with the Slovak Constitution (contravenes with the Slovak Constitution). The change of this law is of utmost importance. The question is, whether this issue is in accordance with the European Union´s Law? • The user of the land after 10 years of the using this land can make a statement about the ownership of this land in spite of the fact, that he is not the original owner registered in cadaster ( for example the Hungarian citizen, who didn´t lose his ownership to this land in Slovakia is still living in Hungary and is registered in cadaster, but temporary user can also register himself in cadaster as an owner.