Building of the Jaguar Land Rover plant on former fields. (source: TASR )
The European Union, at the level of the member states, should agree on better protection of agricultural land from the rampant construction of industrial plants and parking areas. Slovak Agriculture and Rural Development Minister Gabriela Matečná said this at a meeting of the Agriculture and Fisheries Council (AGRIFISH) in Brussels on November 6.
“It’s about time we began seriously considering in Slovakia how long we’ll continue to allow investors to cover fields and meadows with concrete halls and parking areas, while former industrial areas are being run down,” said Matečná as cited by the TASR newswire. “Let’s construct industrial halls where we don’t grow food, not the other way around.”
One of the latest cases of building on fertile arable land is the brand-new car plant of British carmaker Jaguar Land Rover in Nitra.
The Slovak minister noted that Slovakia supports the adoption of binding EU legislation on the protection of land, similar to that which is in place concerning water. At the same time, it’s necessary to ensure balanced distribution in the use and ownership of land and to prevent speculative land deals and the concentration of property ownership, added Matečná.
