Slovakia implemented a moratorium on selling agricultural land to foreigners when it entered the EU on May 1, 2004. In 2011, the EU approved Slovakia's request to prolong the moratorium by three years - to April 30, 2014.
When this ends, the Ordinary People Party (OLaNO) believes that any wealthy foreigner will be able to buy out large portions of Slovak land and transfer the crops to their country. OLaNO MP Jozef Viskupič said last week that he has specific information about a project of buying out a broad swath of Slovak land (tens of thousands of hectares) by the Chinese. He informed that the Slovak Agriculture Ministry is preparing a legislation that should reduce the risk that the agricultural land purchased by foreign entities would be used for other than agricultural purposes. OLaNO earlier in the day also announced that it has collected enough MPs' signatures to debate the issue at a special parliamentary session, which will be convened as soon as possible.
