CEE law report

• Excerpts from the East European Law Monitor

B U L G A R I A

• The law ON CLEAN AIR, submitted by the cabinet, regulates air quality levels and the means of measuring air quality, as well as legal rights and duties related to the control, management, and maintenance of air quality. The law also specifies the sources of pollution subject to the law. The limits on the concentration of noxious compounds in the air are defined jointly by the Minister of the Environment and the Minister of Health. In making their determination, the ministers are to take into account the technical capacity of the polluting actor as well as current state-of-the-art technology for reducing pollution. Authorities may create temporary standards (valid for five years) if stable criteria for a permanent standard cannot be obtained. The lion's share of the parliamentary debate focused on which agency was to create these temporary standards. The law also allows individual municipalities to introduce more stringent restrictions than those imposed by the national authorities.

  The law mandates that regulation of pollution from motor vehicles must take not only the state of the art in emission control into consideration, but also the economic impact of imposing the standard. Restrictions on agricultural production on land adjoining roads are also envisaged.

  The law contains further provisions specifying the enforcement of air quality standards. It mandates access to information about the quality of air and defines the authority of each controlling agency. Municipal authorities are to organize and regulate traffic in order to reduce air pollution. The law also provides for penalties for the importation or production of fuels containing a higher percentage of pollutants than allowed by law. Enterprises currently polluting the air, waters and soil are required to install anti-emission equipment-funding is to be taken from the national or municipal budget.

• The bill on THE AMENDMENT TO THE LAW ON THE OWNERSHIP AND USE OF ARABLE LAND is another attempt to amend what is probably the most disputed law in the current Parliament (and perhaps even since 1990). Since 1995 several amendments were passed by the parliamentary majority, vetoed by the president, and partially overruled by the Constitutional Court. The new bill aims at resolving the conflicts between original owners, claiming restitution of landed property and owners who had acquired property rights and had erected buildings on the land while it had been under the socialist cooperative ownership and management.

  The bill would limit the restitution of ownership rights only to lands that:

  1. Have become part of the cooperative farms; and
  2. Have not been used for any building purposes.

  Restrictions are also introduced in the cases of the partition of restituted land between the inheritors of the former owners (3 inheritors to a minimum of 10 acres). Some restrictions are also introduced to the purchase of land giving spouses, relatives, and neighbors priority.

  The amendment envisages that the price of the land bought by the state is to be determined by the cabinet (according to the acting law this is done by the regional governor). The owners of land formerly incorporated in cooperative farms have rights to part of the movable and immovable property of the cooperative, not only in relation to the proportion of their land, but also with regard to the length of their service to the cooperative.

L I T H U A N I A

• The bill ON THE RIGHT TO OBTAIN LAND FOR AGRICULTURAL CULTIVATION ON FAVORABLE TERMS FROM THE STATE FREE LAND FUND is supported by the social associations of landowners. The bill attempts to resolve the conflict between the landholders of private plots of land and the previous landowners (or their heirs) who are guaranteed the return of their nationalized property. Recently land belonging to former landowners was distributed in apportionments of 2-3 hectares and given to those who live in the countryside and cultivate the land for personal use. Those plots were assigned to them by the 1991-2 law "On Land Reform" as well as other laws. In place of returning the nationalized land to the former landowners (or their heirs) the bill provides a mechanism of compensation. It proposes to compensate landowners for the 2-3 hectares plots given to landholders by giving them the right to obtain 10 hectares of land from the fund of state land on favorable terms (Art. 2). Furthermore, landholders have the same right to obtain 10 hectare plots from the fund in the case that their held plot should be returned to the former. The favorable terms assigned are:

  Persons who will obtain 10 hectare plots from the state land fund pay the same amount of money as would be paid for their 2-3 hectares plot. If the person has purchased a 2-3 hectare plot and has agreed to transfer it to the previous landowner, that person has the right to obtain a 10 hectare plot from the state land fund free of charge (Art.5).

  Landholders have the right to cultivate those plots already returned to the former landowners with 5-10 year leases. The price of rent should not be higher than what is established by the government (Art. 6).

  If the plot is more than 10 km from the residence of its owner, the government provides certain extra aid in order to support newly established farms (Art. 6).

  This bill still needs to be coordinated with other laws in force, but is expected to be passed.

• The bill ON FOOD [Nr. 874(5)] was prepared by a working group from the Ministry of Health, in consultation with the United Nations' food and agricultural association.

  Article 5 creates health standards for the entire food industry in order to ensure consumer health. Food exports, imports, production, distribution, storage, and transportation would all be regulated by the bill's provisions. Article 6 defines which foods are per se dangerous and inappropriate for consumption, and thus prohibited. Furthermore, food producers would be required to pay for the expense of complying with the regulations out of their own pockets (Art. 10).

  Accurate and visible labelsÐwritten in LithuanianÐwould be mandated for all food products.

  The bill also provides for:

  • Prohibited types of food products (Art. 21);
  • Basic principles of food regulation (Art. 29);
  • Regulatory agencies.

  The bill specifies the extent of a violator's liability, should the violation of regulations cause injury to a consumer. Then the violator would be required to cover all losses and expenses incurred by the victim, including those for scientific research and medical treatment (Art. 31.2).

U K R A I N E

• The Presidential Decree ON CREATION OF THE CHERNOBYL CENTER on the Problems of Nuclear Safety, Radioactive Waste and Radioecology aims to create a center devoted to research of the problems of nuclear and radioactive accidents, halting operation of nuclear units, and restoration of areas contaminated by radiation.

  This Center will have an international flavor, since Ukrainian, French, German, American, Russian, and Belarussian scientists will all conduct research there.

  The Center is to engage in research on the impact of the Chernobyl catastrophe on the health of people, inspect the condition of the sarcophagus surrounding the Chernobyl atomic station, as well as on the influence of radioactive waste on groundwater in the vicinity of the sarcophagus.