Today, the Government is discussing a proposal, which may therefore also soon be put before Parliament, according to which access will be provided to land registry office databases in the interests of filtering out pocket contracts, announced Balázs Szabó, Head of Department from the Ministry of Rural Development on Wednesday.

At the external meeting of the intergovernmental committee established to combat illegal and fraudulent land purchase agreements, so-called pocket contracts, Balázs Szabó recalled that permission had previously been requested to access the databases of the four counties that lie along the country's western border, but that Attila Péterfalvi, President of the National Data Protection and Freedom of Information Authority had indicated that current legislation does not make this possible.

Gyula Budai, the Ministry's Parliamentary State Secretary, indicated that this issue will be put before Parliament as an amendment to the Act on Property Records. He stressed that the Government is stepping up specifically against those whose actions have broken the law, and measures will not affect those who have acquired property legally.

This is also what was requested by Austrian Ambassador to Hungary Michael Zimmerman, who said he was not attending the Session because of the issue of pocket contracts, but in the interests of citizens of the European Union, including his own compatriots, who had acquired Hungarian farmland in accordance with regulations.

He stressed: it is important that the cases of these people should not be handled together with those who have concluded pocket contracts, and that they should not be prevented from practicing their rights and continuing their activities unhindered.

At the meeting, State Secretary for Justice Róbert Répássy told those present that measures against pocket contracts were planned in three directions. One of these elements is that the new Penal Code, which will come into force next summer, includes a ban on the illegal acquisition of farmland.

Secondly, he mentioned the fact that the public prosecutors office will have the right, acting in the public interest, to step up in the interests of declaring such contracts null and void, and as the third point, he brought up the fact that the reacquisition of farmland will be possible through legal channels, but that it should be made impossible to force the repayment of the purchase price determined in pocket contracts in a court of law.

Representatives from the Győr-Moson-Sopron County Policy Authority and the National Police Authority reported on several concrete cases in which investigations are underway with regard to pocket contracts. Representatives from the opposition parties were also invited to attend the Session, but only Member of Parliament Rebeka Szabó from the LMP took part, and assured the Committee of her support for its endeavours in the name of her party.

(Press Office of the Ministry of Rural Development)