Compensations to be paid by Kingdom Come

The state will put its real estate resources it still owns into a Fund intended to compensate the former asset owners whose properties were abusively seized by the communist regime, in an attempt to meet the deadline set by the ECHR for the amendment of the law of restitutions - May 2013 -, according to a draft of the law obtained by our newspaper.

The project completely changes the compensation methodology, and former owners who have been waiting for their money for years will need to get accustomed to the new procedures and to arm themselves with patience. Again.

Some owners are bitterly joking that they have to wait before they can even start waiting some more for Kingdom Come.

The compensations will be granted mostly in kind, the draft law states, which the Government will read for the first time today.

On Monday, prime-minister Victor Ponta said that the Government will take responsibility in the Parliament for this law.

We don't know whether the draft presented in the government session will be the same, but the one we received is causing discontent among the former asset owners.

Marius Murgu, the president of the Banat Association of Owners of Nationalized Properties, thinks that if the new law gets passed in the form presented by the authorities, it will cause "a tsunami of discontent among the former owners".

• The first step, local commissions

According to the draft law, the first step in the new restitution system would be the creation of commissions which will create an inventory of the available plots of land. The commissions will draw up a report on the status of the plots of land used for agricultural and forestry purposes, which are the public or private property of the state or of the administrative division of the country, which are suitable for the restoration of the right of ownership for each administrative division of the country.

According to the draft, if the restitution of the former agricultural lands to their owner at their former locations is not possible, once their rights of ownership have been confirmed, by the counties' land commissions, the former owners or their heirs will receive land in other locations according to the following guidelines: a) on the plots of land which are part of the reserve of the land commission; b) on the communal grazing grounds, after changing their intended use according to the needs of the public local authorities; c) on the private or public private property land of the state, managed by institutes, research stations or other public institutions; d) on the publicly or privately owned lands of the state, managed by institutes, research stations and public institutions located within the perimeter of the neighboring cities, in the same county.

The awarding of the plots of land by the local commission will be made according to the order in which the applications were submitted initially, with strict compliance of the order of the categories of land.

• A new Commission, subordinated to the Prime Minister

In order to complete the process for the restitution in kind or in cash of the properties abusively seized by the communist regime, the authorities plan to create the National Commission for the Compensation of Property Owners, which will be subordinated to the Prime Minister.

The Commission has the following functions: it validates/invalidates the decisions of the entities in charge of the restitution; issues the decisions for the compensation of the owners; ensures the coordination of the bidding/awarding of the properties of the National fund; assesses monthly the evolution of the lawsuits which the National Commission is involved in, and decides on the actions to be taken; takes any other legal actions needed to implement the current law.

• Compensations out of the National Fund, starting on January 1st, 2016

According to the draft law, if the restitution in kind is no longer possible, the compensation will be done through a scoring system, through which the former owners will be awarded points which will be usable in an auction.

The requests for restitution which can no longer be solved by the restitution in kind by the local authorities, will be solved with the granting of properties comprised in the National Fund of Agriculture, Forestry and other properties intended for compensation.

The National Fund will be created through the inclusion of agricultural and forestry land and other properties privately or publicly owned by the state, managed by the Agency of the Domains of the State and of those plots of land owned by other central or local institutions/authorities, and is intended for the use of the points granted through the compensation decisions issued by the National Commission.

The National Fund will be managed by the Agency of the State's Domains.

The compensation of former owners using properties which belong to the National Fund will be done starting with January 1st, 2016, according to the draft law.

The titleholders of the compensation decisions can sell their points awarded through the compensation decision by participating in the national auctions of buildings from the National Funds.

The auctions will be held weekly at the central office of the National Real Estate Publicity and Cadaster Agency, using a videoconference system.

• Former owners will only be entitled to receive compensation in cash after proving that they have participated in at least three auctions

Within three years from receiving the compensation decision, but no earlier than January 1st, 2017, the holders of property rights who can prove that they have participated in at least three national auctions for the awarding of properties and that they did not spend their points therein, can opt to receive their equivalent value in cash as well.

• Marius Murgu: "We will present an alternative draft law by the end of the week"

Marius Murgu considers that the alternative proposed by the authorities is not functional.

He said: "Theoretically, it sounds good. On a declarative level, it also sounds good. But concretely, when it comes to implementing it, I am not just skeptical, I am also pessimistic, because there has been no dialog between the authorities and the important associations of former owners.

According to the information about the draft of the law which the Government will try to force upon us, my opinion is that a disaster is looming, a tsunami of discontent among the former owners, with repercussions at the level of the European institutions as well. The solution proposed by the Government isn't workable".

Mr. Murgu sees no reasons for the local authorities to comply with the government's "directive" and to offer the plots of land that they own as compensation to the former owners: "There is hope that the mayors will allocate the plots of land for the compensation in kind of the former owners, but mayors, especially the ones who are members of the governing coalition, won't fear any sanctions and will not give away plots of land from the Compensation Fund, which they know they would need for the development of the city".

According to Mr. Murgu, the associations of former owners will propose an alternative draft to the law, by the end of this week, which will be published on the restitutio.ro portal.

In the opinion of Marius Murgu, the new law should provide the victims with the option to choose their manner of compensation - either by receiving stock, or bonds.

An alternative would be for the state to offer stakes of 5-10% of the companies it still has in its portfolio, Murgu considers.

He also has a rhetorical question for the liberals: "How can they take responsibility for this law, which is ten times worse than their law, no. 247?"

Marius Murgu says that he has requested meetings dozens of times and he has addressed a collective memorandum to the ANRP and the Government, signed by 11 associations of former asset owners, in which he mentioned a list of principles that he wanted to see included in the new law. Out of those, only one of the principles is present in the draft law proposed by the authorities, according to him.

Because of the large number of lawsuits, the ECHR forced the Romanian government to amend the law by May 2013, after having obtained an extension of five months from the initial deadline which had initially been set for last summer.