From 2020, citizens of the European Union (EU) will be able to buy Bulgarian agricultural land. The moratorium on the sale of agricultural land to foreigners is lifted. This will happen from January next year with amendments to the Agricultural Land Act, reports BGNES.

"The ban on the sale of agricultural land was imposed when GERB was in opposition, we supported it. The rules and regulation of land properties," said Agriculture Minister Desislava Taneva, quoted by bTV. She admitted that so far foreign citizens have also acquired Bulgarian agricultural land by circumventing the rules, namely by posing as a local legal entity. It is not a problem for the capital to be held by European citizens. "The prohibition remains as it is in our common law regime," explained the Agriculture Minister.

The decision to ban the sale of fields to foreigners was taken by Parliament on 22 October 2013. 

Another topic the Minister of Agriculture commented on was land swaps. "103 deals ca concluded for land swaps at a lower price. They were possible even before 2007. Back then the EC regulations did not apply to us, Taneva said.

Until 28 February 2009, the laws in force at that time ca allowed swaps to take place. All the mechanisms existed in Bulgarian legislation to ensure that the state would recover the more than BGN 80 million. These are probably the richest people in the country," the minister added and recalled that most of the swaps are of companies.

There will be procedures, but in Bulgarian law there are "There are possibilities to cancel transactions, all kinds of possibilities in Bulgarian law to protect your interest," she clarified.