Minister of State for the National Land Programme Márton Bitay took part at the informal meeting of V4 agriculture ministers on the regulation of land acquisition after 2014.

The Slovakian Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development organised the informal meeting of the agriculture ministers of the Visegrád Four countries to that the member states could discuss the goals and details of the regulation that will follow the liberalisation of the land market at the highest possible level. The delegation from Hungary, who is currently President of the V4, also played a professionally key role at the meeting, because according to the Slovakian party the new legislation on the acquisition of farmland adopted in July includes solutions that may serve as examples and models for the other countries of the Visegrád Group.

The Slovakian and Polish parties enquired about the Hungarian legislation and the preparative process that preceded its adoption. Magdalena Lacko-Bartosová, the Slovakian ministry's State Secretary, said that the development of a similar land act was underway in Slovakia, which would include many of the solutions presented by the Hungarian legislation. The Hungarian and Polish governments have a similar land policy, which focuses on family farms and puts locally resident farmers at an advantage, Márton Bitay said. The Minster of State came to an agreement with Polish Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Stanislaw Kalemba on future expert cooperation.

Following the meeting, the Minister of State attended the official opening of the Agrokomplex exhibition in Nitra, where he met with Hungarian exhibitors.

(Press Office of the Ministry of Rural Development)