site.btaParliament Overrides Presidential Veto on Eased Alteration of Farm Land Use for Building Development

Sofia, February 15 (BTA) - Bulgaria's Parliament Thursday overrode a veto imposed by President Rumen Radev on February 2 on amendments to the Agricultural Land Conservation Act relaxing rules for the alteration of the assigned use of land from farming to building development.

The vote was 124 in favour (GERB, United Patriots and Volya), 73 against (BSP for Bulgaria and Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF) and 6 abstentions (BSP for Bulgaria).

The amendments were moved by a United Patriots MP and were passed on January 24 as part of revisions of the Seeds and Planting Stock Act. The new provisions enable the owners of farm land with altered assigned use, who have failed to start construction within the statutory six-year time limit (until May 2017), to apply for re-confirmation of this status instead of reverting their property to use for farming purposes. The idea behind the revisions was that many people and companies bought farm land during the real estate boom a dozen of years ago, had them zoned and coped with red tape and fee payments, but were forced to delay their construction projects due to the credit crunch.

In the reasons for his veto, the President argued that the amended rules do not fulfil the State's constitutional obligation to conserve agricultural land and to allow an alteration of its assigned use only as an exception and for a proven need. The veto came in the wake of environmentalists' warning that the amendments allow the expansion of building development in farm land in lucrative investment areas like Sofia, Plovdiv and the Black Sea coast.

The Plenary Debate

Svetla Buchvarova MP of BSP for Bulgaria: "The motion that has been carried marks a back-off from the effective farm land protection mechanisms. The amendments] considerably ease the possibility to change the assigned use of agricultural land, which is what the President challenges."

Byurhan Abazov MP of the MRF: "The first bill was withdrawn under pressure from protestors and failed to address the issue of the use alteration permits expiring by May 2017Е Such permits cannot be valid indefinitely."

Yordan Apostolov MP of United Patriots: "The President's veto divided Bulgarian citizens into owners and pseudo-Greens, who have sufficiently harmed Bulgaria by their actions."

No GERB MP took the floor during the debate.

The Opponents' View

Lyuba Batenbergska of the Save Kara Dere Citizens' Initiative told a BTA-hosted news conference that the latest amendments to the Agricultural Land Conservation Act introduce a special procedure which facilitates the change of agricultural land use and encourage building development on such properties. "This is the case because the submission of a detailed spatial development plan will no longer be required when the procedure starts but the urbanization intention will be particularized after an alteration of the assigned use is endorsed," she explained. "Thus, when the documents are filed, it will be essentially unclear what necessitates the alteration of the assigned use, and the intentions may be changed after the start of the procedure. Investors can now delay the particularization of their building development intentions and the completion of the procedure at their discretion," Batenbergska pointed out.

According to Dimiter Gatsov of the same conservationist organization, the purpose of the legislative revisions is to continue the overdevelopment of the coast according to the old decisions and plans. As he put it, "legislation should not be amended before a public debate on the future of the Black Sea coast and the mountains."