THE GOVERNMENT WILL TAKE ON THE RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE LAW OF OWNERSHIP George Băeşu, ANRP: "The amount of the compensations will not be capped"

The former property owners whose assets were abusively seized by the Communist regime will be compensated predominantly in kind, according to the draft of the new law on restitutions, which the government will present for the first time on Wednesday.

According to prime minister Victor Ponta, the Executive will take responsibility for the new law in the Parliament.

The procedure of taking responsibility for a law is the passing of a legislative draft through the Parliament without it being debated, as Romania is being pressured by the deadline imposed by the European Court of Human Rights (CEDO) for the amendment of the Law of Nationalized properties.

Due to the large number of lawsuits, the Government was forced by the ECHR to amend the law and it is required to do so by May, after obtaining a 9-month extension of the initial deadline which had been set for last summer.

George Băeşu, the president of the National Authority for the Restitution of Properties (ANRP) said that the draft law involves a maximum transparency and puts the interests of people and Romania's general interest first.

"Locally we will go with the restitution in kind, and on a central level, with the compensation with equivalent properties and money", George Băeşu said.

He also said that the new law requires people to be patient, but does not restrict their rights, or reduce their value.

The Mihai Răzvan Ungureanu government had proposed the capping of the compensation at 15%. Last year, the former prime minister was saying that the Romanian state would have to pay 70 billion Euros for the cases of restitution taken to the ECHR and that capping the compensations would be one solution to get rid of these payments.

The National Authority for the Restitution of Properties estimates that the compensations which the government still owes the former property owners amount to approximately 8.7 - 9 billion Euros, which represents 6.5% of the estimated GDP for the year 2013, according to a memorandum passed in January in a government meeting.

• Mihai Răzvan Ungureanu initiates his own draft law concerning the restitution of properties seized by the Communist regime

On Tuesday, the MPs of the Civic Force Party will submit a legislative initiative n the Parliament concerning the restitution of the properties seized by the Communist regime, based on the principle that the restitution or compensation are mandatory, its president, Mihai Răzvan Ungureanu, announced, quoted by Mediafax.

He said that other principles of this legislative initiative are the election by the dispossessed owner of the manner in which to be compensated, the stipulation of terms and sanctions for individuals and institutions in the restitution process, the transparency of the compensations.

During his term as a Prime Minister, Ungureanu became extremely unpopular of the former property owners, and with the Forţa Civică (Civic Force) party, which he is currently leading, due to the proposal to cap the amount of the compensations at 15%.

Ungureanu also said that the project of his party stipulates several methods for the restitution of the seized properties: either the restitution in kind, the granting of equivalent assets, if the seized property does not exist anymore, the granting of bonds, shares in state owned companies or compensation in kind.