President Klaus Iohannis on Wednesday voiced his concern at 30 percent of Romania's farmland being foreign-owned, suggesting that the relevant legislation should be amended. "An element of extraordinary importance for Romania is who owns the country's farmland? At least at this moment, as I learn from Mr. Agriculture minister [Irimescu], 30 percent of Romania's farmland is in the hands of people other than Romanians. For me, personally, this share is worrisome," Iohannis told the debate "The President of Romania in dialogue with farmers," organized at the INDAGRA international agricultural fair which opened on Wednesday in Bucharest.
Iohannis underscored that the matter calls for a pragmatic approach, arguing that a minimum requirement should be the preemptive right for those who represent the state or the local community. "It takes a pragmatic, but at the same time European approach. We are in the EU, we cannot cut ourselves off, return to isolationism, but on the other hand nobody prevents us from working out a legislation allowing Romanians to establish what happens in Romania. A minimum requirement is a preemptive right for those who represent the state or the community, and if neither the state nor the community are interested in a specific land plot put up for sale, then, sure, we can consider how we'll proceed further, but I don't think we can go on like this forever, because we'll end up wondering who the land belongs to, because it's no longer ours. Obviously we can sort out this highly sensitive situation through a legislation that protects us, but is at the same time European," concluded the head of the state.
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