Opposition MPs say that the proposed amendments to the Law on Agricultural Land are nonsensical because they don’t actually prevent foreigners from buying land, rather are limiting the scope of people who can buy land.
The law stipulates that physical persons from the European Union cannot buy land in Serbia, but EU-based legal entities can.
An MP from the Democratic Party, Goran Jesic called the law ‘nonsensical’ because it prevents individuals from buying land, but anyone who opens a company here (with a 100 dinars of founding capital) can buy a land.
“I can liken it to banning the citizens of Hollywood or New York from buying houses in Kaludjerica. There is no legal obstacle for a Dutch person or a German to buy land here in Serbia. We don’t have a problem with them coming to buy land, but we do have a problem with tycoons buying land”, Jesic says and asks how was it possible for the German company, Toennies to be given 2,500 hectares of land without going through a proper auction.
Jesic also wonders who is the real owner of the Al Rafaved Company which now owns around 10,000 hectares of land in Vojvodina. How much land does the proprietor of Agrokor, Ivica Todoric have in Serbia – Jesic asks, and adds that, considering all of this, the law makes no sense.
The leader of Dveri, Bosko Obradovic that the law betrays the Serbian economic and national interests. “Foreigners are already dominating Serbia, now we are supposed to sell them Serbian agricultural land too?”, Obradovic asks.
An MP from Nova Stranka (New Party), Zoran Zivkovic also thinks that the law is nonsensical and that it is actually a smokescreen for giving away land in Serbia to the people close to Aleksandar Vucic.
(Danas, 24.08.2017)
This post is also available in: Italiano