As a member of the ruling coalition, Electoral Action of Poles in Lithuania (EAPL) raised the issue of speeding up the termination of the land return to its rightful owners. Valdemar Tomaševski, EAPL leader, has presented the amendments to the Lithuanian Law on the restoration of property rights to preserved immovable property.
EAPL suggests that urban land which has been leased to companies or individuals and which, in accordance to the current regulations is not returned to owners, would be subject to return. Then the company and the persons leasing the land would be forced to sign a lease agreement not with the state, but with the owner or would be able to buy it from the owner by mutual consent. Similar solutions are already being implemented in rural localities.
According to the data of the National Land Service under the Ministry of Agriculture from the 1st January 2013, 12,2 thousand of citizens are still waiting for the return of 8,1 thousand hectares of urban land. This means, that in cities only 79% of citizens have received their land back. In rural localities it is 99%, and in Vilnius – only 40%.
The coalition members has decided that soon the first reading of the draft law will take place in the Seimas, but before the draft law will be presented in the parliament, the Ministry of Agriculture has to provide legal assessment of the amendments. As L24 found out, EAPL predicts that it will be able to convince members of the Seimas to the need for the adoption of these amendments and the draft law will be adopted in the first reading.