Latvian parliament to receive petition preventing foreigners from buying land

An online petition to ban foreigners from purchasing land in Latvia will be submitted to lawmakers for review, local media reported Thursday.

Armands Krauze, an MP of the ruling Greens and Farmers Union (ZZS), launched the initiative in December 2015, posting the petition on Latvia's Manabalss.lv public initiatives website.

Since then, more than 10,000 supporters of the proposal have signed the petition, which means that it can be submitted to the parliament which will be obliged to review it as an official legislative initiative.

Krauze said that the intention was to protect Latvian farmers from being outrivaled by large Danish, German and other European farming companies, which can afford to set more competitive prices and are better positioned to attract financing.

Krauze said he wanted Latvia's farmlands and forests to remain in local citizens' possession and to "stop them from being sold out to foreigners and multinational investment funds."

The politician also urged lawmakers to call a referendum on the proposal. He noted that similar proposals have been debated also in other EU members and Lithuania even held a referendum, although it failed due to low voter turnout.

Under the current legislation, effective as of May 2014, citizens of EU members and EU-registered legal entities can purchase land in Latvia on the same conditions as citizens of Latvia. Endit