Austria To Help Hungary Resolve “Pocket Contracts” Issues
- 26 Apr 2012 9:00 AM
Austrian officials will work with Hungary on the issue of illegal “pocket contracts” on the sale of farmland, Regional Development Ministry state secretary Gyula Budai revealed on Wednesday. Such contracts – designed to circumvent the ban on the sale of farmland to foreigners – are to be classified as a crime, Budai announced on the weekend.
He and Austrian ambassador Michael Zimmermann have decided to form a Hungarian-Austrian working group, to investigate such contracts.
Budai told a local forum in Pápa, western Hungary, on Wednesday that Austrians estimate that 160,000 hectares of land are rented by their farmers, whereas in his view about one million hectares of land are held down by Austrian farmers with rent contracts.
Budai, chairman of the parliamentary committee investigating illegally obtained farmland, said amnesty will be granted to those who report such contracts until a new land bill is passed.
Source: Hungary Around the Clock
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