With yesterday’s decision, the Constitutional Court of Slovakia has finally repealed a law that is regarded as discriminatory and hostile to investors. The decision concerned the acquisition of agricultural land which, under the previous law, could only be acquired by the members of the municipality where the land was located or their relatives. Only if there were no potential buyers from this circle, investors could purchase the land directly. This law was intended to prevent non-resident investors from buying up large areas of land in order to invest there. In practice, this regulation could be circumvented, but this was associated with great effort and significantly higher costs.
The Constitutional Court based its decision on the fact that the restrictions on these land transfers violated the fundamental right to property. The Ministry of Agriculture has not yet commented on this decision, as it has stated that it would first have to analyse it. However, we assume that the Ministry will accept this ruling and that interested investors will be able to start the project development already.
We expressly welcome this ruling and will be happy to support you in your projects, of course we will keep you informed. For further information please contact us by phone or e-mail.