PRESIDENT SÓLYOM’S FIRST DELICATE TASK

The budget of this year has no money to repurchase the earlier privatized nature conservation areas though the Constitutional Court had a decree about it. In the past ten years only 60 pc of the affected areas have been restored ’to the former level of protection’: instead of 230 000 hectares only 140 000 hectares have been bought back by the state.

The government now wants to prolong the deadline of the repurchases which is the end of the next year – the bill of this is discussed at present by the ministries. Probably this package of bills will be the first challenge to the new President, László Sólyom who chaired the Constitutional Court in 1994 when it decided about the repurchase of the earlier privatized nature conservation areas. These areas had been owned before the change of regime by the state and by agricultural cooperatives. The law in 1995 ruled about the repurchase with a deadline of the end of 2001. In 2003 HUF 900 million was spent for the programme, in 2004 only of 480 million, and this year the budget does not contain any sum for this purpose.


P.Sz.Sz.