The ownership right over land used for agricultural purposes or from the forest stock could not be acquired or possessed by foreign citizens, natural or legal persons. This is provided in the new Land Code that was given a final reading by Parliament and will come into force in a year, IPN reports.

According to the document, if foreign citizens acquire land for agricultural purposes or from the forest stock through succession, court decision or mortgage, they will be obliged to sell this within a year of the date of ownership acquisition.

The new Code stipulates a new classification of agricultural land, as well as regulations concerning the modification of the way the land is used. Thus, owners of agricultural land will be able to build on these lots warehouses, cold storage facilities for agricultural products, workshops for repairing and housing agricultural machinery, livestock farms, objects of infrastructure and primary processing of the obtained production, agritourist pensions, etc. without changing land use.

The document also regulates the ways of consolidating agricultural land and the actions taken if the owners have not obtained inheritance documents over these lots and do not maintain and cultivate them. So, if agricultural land is not cultivated and maintained in a proper phytosanitary state for more than two years in a row, the local public authorities will be able to manage the given land and to land it out.

The new Land Code will enter into force in a year of its publication in the Official Gazette.