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The Government of the Republic of Serbia

In the service of citizens

Returning church property will not burden state budget

Belgrade, 28 April 2006

Serbian Minister of International Economic Relations Milan Parivodic said that the Bill on returning property to churches and religious communities, adopted by the Serbian government today, is the first of the two systemic laws that will regulate the restitution of property taken away from churches and religious communities during the communist regime.

Milan Parivodic at today's press conference

Speaking at a press conference held after the government session, Parivodic explained that the importance of this bill from the viewpoint of legal order is manifold since it represents the consolidation of the right to property, through which it builds additional trust between Serbia as the state and its citizens.

Parivodic explained that the Serbian Ministry of International Economic Relations helped the Ministry of Religion concerning the technical aspect of the bill, and pointed out that physical persons will not be required to return property to the church in kind, but that the state will give compensations to the church for that property.

As far as legal entities are concerned, those that came to the possession of the property which used to belong to churches and religious communities in non-market conditions will be required to return that property in kind, while those legal entities which purchased church property at market prices will be allowed to keep it, while the state will make up for the loss to damaged churches and religious communities.

Milan Radulovic

Serbian Minister of Religion Milan Radulovic said that after the adoption of the Law on churches and religious communities and the Bill on returning property to churches and religious communities, a rounded system of relations between the state and the church will begin to be established.

Radulovic said that the property that will be returned to churches and religious communities is in most cases in the same condition as when it was taken away. He added that the return of that property will not burden the state budget because property will mostly be returned physically, while only in a small number of cases it will be done in the form of a payment.

He explained that with this bill, church property is separated from other private property, bearing in mind that church property has been in the service of public good, i.e. it has not been in the function of profit, but of a spiritual and social mission.

Radulovic concluded that with this bill, churches and religious communities will get a better material basis for performing their positive role in society.

Ivana Dulic-Markovic

Serbian Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management Ivana Dulic-Markovic expressed satisfaction with the Bill on agricultural land, which was adopted by the Serbian government today.

She expressed her conviction that this bill will be supported in the Serbian parliament also by members of the opposition, considering the fact that everyone is interested in the development of agriculturists and villages.

Dulic-Markovic stressed that the key novelty in the Bill on agricultural land is represented by decentralization, which practically means that local self governments gain more authority and make programmes for using state owned agricultural land by themselves, depending on the development strategy of the municipality, in which the municipality will receive part of the proceeds from leasing agricultural land.