EU and Poland agree on land purchases; Verheugen decries import tax

Foreign Minister Wlodzimierz Cimoszewicz announced in Brussels yesterday that citizens of the European Union (EU) will be able to purchase private non-agricultural land in Poland seven years after Poland's accession into the Union. EU farmers who plan to cultivate land themselves will have the right to purchase farmland in Poland three years after it becomes an EU member. Cimoszewicz said that the Polish government wants a 12-year transition period for the purchase of agricultural and forested land purchased by those who do not intend to cultivate or develop it themselves. In related news, EU Enlargement Commissioner Guenter Verheugen told Cimoszewicz that the EU is against Poland's plans to introduce a 5% import tax. "This tax would be a bad sign for the international economy and investors," he said. (Rzeczpospolita, p. A1; Zycie, p. 4) A.Z.