Brussels, 27/04/2001 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission is expected to adopt and forward to the Council, on Friday 4 May, its draft common positions on the free movement of capital chapter, one of the most sensitive chapters still to be negotiated with Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Latvia and Malta. Most of these countries call for relatively long transitional periods to be applied after their accession to the EU during which restrictions on the acquisition of agricultural, forestry and industrial land would apply to Community foreigners who do not reside on their national territory. Periods would also apply to the acquisition of secondary homes.
Thus, Poland calls for a transitional 18-year period for farming land and 5 years for industrial land (for investment). Hungary and the Czech Republic ask for 10 years for farming land and 5 for secondary residencies, and Slovakia calls for a 10-year period for farming land (but makes no request for secondary residencies), and Bulgaria calls for a 10-year period for the acquisition of land in general.
According to reliable sources, the Commission will propose to the Fifteen that they negotiate limiting these transitional periods to 7 years for farming and forestry land and to 5 for secondary residencies. The Commission, on the other hand, considers that no limit to the free movement of capital should be accepted by the EU regarding acquisition of industrial land.
On the basis of draft common positions that the Commission will adopt next week, the Member States should then reach an agreement on a common EU negotiating position, which will be submitted to the candidate countries either during the next negotiating meeting (at deputy level) mid-May or, more probably, during the ministerial negotiating meeting in June.
Estonia, Slovenia, Cyprus and Lithuania have already completed their negotiations on the capital chapter. From these countries, only Cyprus had requested a transitional period for the acquisition of secondary residencies. It finally obtained the right to ban non-resident Community citizens from acquiring secondary residencies during a five-year period after accession to the EU.