Romania Mulls Curbs on Foreigners Buying Farmland

Foreigners buying up farmland remains a worry in Romania. Under a new law proposal, EU citizens and companies will only be able to buy agricultural land there if 90 per cent of their employees are Romanian, or if Romanian companies hold at least 30 per cent of the capital, and if the buyers maintain agriculture as main activity object.

The law would ensure "ensures equal opportunities between Romanian and European farmers... preventing any activity of circumventing the legislation and Romanian citizens' interests," the explanatory memorandum says.

Like it or not, Romania has had to grant foreign citizens the right to directly purchase farmland since 2014, when EU rules obliged it to open up the market.

A report commissioned last year by the European Parliament said up to 10 per cent of Romania's agricultural land is already controlled by investors from outside the EU, with a further 20 30 per cent in the hands of EU-based investors.

"In the county Timis [in Western Romania], approximately 150,000 ha of agricultural land - almost a third of the agricultural area in the county - is cultivated by Italian-owned companies.

"The largest part of the cultivated land is also owned by foreign companies. The number of land transactions as well as the area sold has more than tripled in Romania between 2005 and 2009," the report reads.

One cause of this situation is the fact that agricultural land is not seen as an asset by most Romanians, who tend to consider agriculture a thing of the past.

Even if almost half of Romania's 19.5 million people still live in rural areas, agriculture has long lacked investment, while other problems include fragmentation of holdings, property-related lawsuits, obsolete technology and the...