Abstract:

Romania’s rural development experienced a complex evolution after the change of the political regime in 1990, being influenced by the national policies regarding the land fund field and land retrocession to former owners. The process of land investiture of the Romanian farmers was ambiguous, sinuous and difficult to apply. Land property and agricultural land property restitution constituted a process running for over 20 years, which is still not concluded. The paper analyses the evolution of the land fund and agricultural land property law after the 1990’s, as well as the rural environment with regard to agricultural land. After the land retrocession law came into effect and was applied, starting with the year 1996, the percentage of privately owned land fund started to increase, reaching over 73.6% in 2007, a constant value up to the present day. The evolution was much more accelerated in the case of private agricultural land, which registered a rapid increase reaching 72 % in 1997 and over 93% in 2014. Deficiencies of the national legislation favoured unsystemised retrocessions, sometimes without complete supportive documents, which generated injustices and abuses, punished in some cases by national and international fora. The fragmentation of agricultural land, also due to the defective system of land realottment of the Romanian farmers, affected the performance of the national agicultural production and favoured the alienation of Romanian land. Measures undertaken by Romanian officials in the field of agricultural land were dictated by social criteria, economic pressure, unprofessional adherence negotiations or momentary political interests.