The Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession is expected to recover its property confiscated by the communist regime via an amendment to the law on restitution of property ownership to religious communities submitted in a joint effort by ruling coalition and opposition lawmakers, the TASR newswire wrote on January 16.
The legislative measure secures transfer of the ownership of a college and related land in Prešov to the Evangelical church, thus rectifying a delay in 2005 when key information in the law adopted to settle property claims of churches was misstated and disrupted completion of restitution.
Catholic and Orthodox churches were able to reacquire their properties. Ľubomír Petrák, one of the three coalition (Smer) lawmakers on the ad hoc committee, said the amendment is proposed to take effect on April 15, 2010 and will be voted next month in parliament following a series of legal analyses.
According to Slovak Democratic and Christian Union (SDKÚ) MP Pavol Kubovič, the amendment was originally scheduled for parliamentary debate in December but was postponed to ensure that it is properly worded. TASR
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
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