The owners of land plots surrounding the Giurgiulesti port will be expropriated under an interest-of-state law passed on Friday in final reading by the Parliament, Info-Prim Neo reports. The law declares the Giurgiulesti International Free Port as a facility of state interest. It stipulates the expropriation of property owners with fair and prior compensation. According to Deputy Minister of Economy and Trade Iurie Munteanu, nationalized will be a total of 62 hectares of land “absolutely necessary for the construction of the cargo terminal and of the passenger port”. The deputy minister said the expropriation procedure was needed because the owners were asking unreasonably large sums of money for their land. “The existing situation jeopardizes the start of the project in the terms planned for 2008”, Iurie Muntean explained. The Opposition demanded that the bill be rejected, reasoning that it interfered with the right to property of the citizens; but the proposal didn't find endorsement with the parliamentary majority. “Through this law we force the owners to sell their plots and favor the activity of an entrepreneur – the general investor that builds the port”, independent MP Vlad Filat remarked. The Opposition also argued that the leadership of the country was personally interested in having the port built, despite its possible uselessness. The Government has declared earlier that the passenger port would be put into use on July 15. The completion of the grain terminal was scheduled for the second quarter of 2008, and of the cargo terminal for September 2008.