The Infrastructure of the Market in Real Estate




The task of the first seminar (Thursday, Oct. 4th, 14 - 17) is to identify the 'infrastructure' that is needed for the operation of a market in real estate. Some evidence for this identification may be found in documents that describe the changes, which have to take place in the former socialist countries before they are included into the EU. The following is to support your search for evidence. I assume that you with your group select 1 or 2 countries, and compare their real property infrastructure with the situation in Finland. The outcome is to be reported by means of 1-2 overheads to the class.

Documents are issued by the European Commission (where you may find ways for Finnish versions), by its Directorate General on External Relations . The enlargement process has got it own home page .

The enlargement process is, in principle, governed by rule of law, implying that criteria have to be stated explicitly. If you look through the 'Copenhagen criteria', you find references to

stability of institutions guaranteeing democracy, the rule of law, human rights and respect for and protection of minorities;
the existence of a functioning market economy as well as the capacity to cope with competitive pressure and market forces within the Union;
the ability to take on the obligations of membership including adherence to the aims of political, economic and monetary union.
and
the conditions for its integration through the adjustment of its administrative structures, so that European Community legislation transposed into national legislation is implemented effectively through appropriate administrative and judicial structures

but no specific mentioning of land registry and cadastre. The technical terms that come the closest may be legal and institutional preparations.

Review procedure - Regular Reports

Following the publication of the Commission’s Opinions on the progress of the candidate countries in 1997 , the Commission submits regular reports to the Council on further progress achieved by each country. The reports serve as a basis for the Council to take decisions on the conduct of negotiations or their extension to other candidates on the basis of the accession criteria. The Commission submitted the first set of these Regular Reports, covering the ten associated countries in central Europe, Cyprus and Turkey, to the Council in November 1998 .

In line with the decisions of the Cologne European Council, the Commission adopted on 13 October 1999 its regular reports and a more general composite paper on the progress made by each of the candidate countries towards accession (COM (1999) 500-513 19/10). At the subsequent Helsinki European Council meeting, the Council noted relative to Ukraine:

I.ii. Support for the economic transition process in Ukraine

13.The EU is committed to supporting Ukraine's efforts in establishing an environment that is conducive to economic activity and will support Ukraine in its economic and social reforms.

14.The EU encourages Ukraine to establish macro-economic policies aiming at price stability, sound public finances and a sustainable current account position. In order to proceed further to price stability it is important that the central bank is allowed to operate independently of political interference. Existing prudential regulations for financial sector supervision need to be strengthened. Tax collection must be improved, and ad hoc tax amnesties and tax exemptions for specific sectors of the economy should be avoided.

15.The EU strongly encourages Ukraine to intensify its efforts to build a functioning market economy through greater structural, economic and administrative reforms in the context of a comprehensive reform programme agreed with the International Monetary Fund. This should include establishing and enforcing clear property rights, further privatisation, further liberalisation of prices, the raising of communal tariffs for energy, water and rents to full cost recovery levels, restructuring of business, and encouraging the growth of small and medium size enterprises. The overall pace of these reforms needs to be accelerated. As far as sectoral reform is concerned, the agriculture, energy and transport sectors deserve particular attention.

16.The introduction of a land reform process is required to facilitate, inter alia, the long term lease of land as collateral for loan s, paving the way for more investment in the agriculture sector.

The above mentioned regular reports from 1999 contain a detailed analysis of the progress made by these 13 candidate countries since november 1998. They show that all countries except Turkey fulfill the political criteria for accession and that only Cyprus and Malta fully meet the economic criteria. Regarding the adoption of the acquis, the situation varies between countries : while good progress was made by Hungary, Latvia and Bulgaria the pace of transposition in Poland and the Czech Republic was slow. The full 1999 Regular Reports can be found here

For example, in the report for Latvia, in section D on Accession Partnership, subsections on .. Assessment of short and medium term priorities, .. Short-term priorities ..Economic criteria you find: Establishment of medium term economic policy priorities ... .. ... modernization of the agriculture sector and establishment of a land and property register . The subsequent assessment states that

Land registration continues, with the State Land Cadastre almost complete, but with registration in the Legal Register still relatively low. Therefore, this priority has been partially met.

Similarly, in the report for Slovenia mentioning is made that

The land market has been liberalized and 92% of the agricultural land is in private hands. Former state farms, which were all by 1998, arprivatizede constrained in their investment decisions by uncertainties about the property rights on the land which they use. Only 28% of this land has been officially restituted.

An alternative or supplement to browsing through the reports is to use a search machine, e.g. www.google.com, with search criteria like:

There seems to be - more or less detailed - information on the following countries: Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, and Slovenia

The European Parliament, in an Opinion of 25. June 2001, repeatedly comments on the progress of land reform in accession countries.

The Council of Europe (not to be mixed up with the European Council) has organized work on Legal Affairs . Our field is just mentioned (under Civil and Commercial law):

Finally, specific activities are organised to assist Central and Eastern European States in reforming their legislation on property issues, for instance in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Moldavia, Romania or in Kosovo (FRY).

You should be aware, however, that property issues often refer to intellectual property rights (copyright) and not to real property rights.


Background papers on the European change process:

Bogaerts, Williamson and Fendel (2001) THE ROLE OF LAND ADMINISTRATION IN THE ACCESSION OF CENTRAL EUROPEAN COUNTRIES TO THE EUROPEAN UNION (2001).

Riddell, Jim and Fritz Rembold (2000) Farm Land Rationalisation and Land Consolidation: Strategies for Multifunctional Use of Rural Space in Eastern and Central Europe .




You might want to look for information provided by the countries that you selected, e.g. through European Governments on the WWW , and of cause at the (paper) library.
A more direct way to information on cadastral systems goes through European organisations in the field of cadastre, land registration and geodetic surveying, respectively.


The mapping agencies of European countries have organized CERCO and MEGRIN as frames for mutual exchange of experiences, concerns, etc. By January 1st 2001 these two organisations have merged into EuroGeographics . In some fields, this organisation covers cadastral issues, e.g. the ETeMII White Paper on Reference Data and general data quality and data documentation issues. Also, it provides for a nice list of links to map related organisations. However, cadastral and related issues are treated explicitly by Working Party on Land Administration , within the Human Settlements Commission of the UN's Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE).

A seminar is going to be held November 20-21 2001. A background paper is provided for discussions on PUBLIC/PRIVATE SECTOR RELATIONSHIPS IN THE ESTABLISHMENT OF LAND REGISTRATION SYSTEMS . Possibly more interesting is the Documentation section, which includes the following:
The inventory (as of april 2000) has the following content

    Part 1 . Land and land administration

  1. Introduction
  2. Summary of Responses
  3. Section A Organisation and Government Responsibility (Names, Addresses, Telephone, Fax and Email)
  4. Questionnaire
  5. Part 2 .

  6. Section B Land and Title Registration
  7. Section C National Topographical Survey of physical ground features and recording of area of parcel boundaries
  8. Section D Valuation of Land
  9. Part 3 .

  10. Section E Record and determination of Land Use and classification of Attributes
  11. Section F Current and future development projects
  12. Additional Comments
  13. Currency Conversion table

A very nice Documentation of Land Administration Projects is provided by the Austrian Federal Office for Metrology and Surveying. Click the map on the country that you want to know more about.


The above approaches has been 'governmental', that is looking at the subject of cadastral systems through the stucture of the European Commission, and through the structure of the national, governmental institutions that are concerned with cadastre and land management. An alternative approach goes through the professional associations:
The CLGE present itself, and provide documentation as follows:

What is the CLGE? Introduction to the CLGE
Objectives of the CLGE
Definition of a Geodetic Surveyor
Membership of the CLGE
Organisation of the CLGE
Reports of the CLGE
CLGE Publications On-Line The Education And Practice Of The Geodetic Surveyor In Western Europe
The Establishment of the Profile and Definition of
the Geodetic Surveying Profession to Meet the Requirements of the
General Public and the Commission of the European Union

The cadastral issues appear, e.g. as

3.3.1 Geodetic Survey Functions
3.3.1.4 Cadastral and Boundary Surveying: the determination and interpretation of boundaries and demarcations on the surface or in space from or into verbal, cartographic or mathematical description together with the abstract legal concept thereof.
and
3.3.2 Geodetic Survey Applications
3.3.2.7 Cadastral Management (which includes the legal, economic and fiscal definition of real estate): the compilation, management and revision of land registration records, land terriers, remembrement archives, and other such legal references and archives whether public or private.

The CLGE is recognized by the European Commission ( MARKT-D4 ) from the point of view of the Internal Market, the Free Movement of People & Individual Rights , and the possible mutual recognition of qualifications :

Qualifications/Overview
The rights of EU citizens to establish themselves or to provide services anywhere in the EU are fundamental principles of European Community law. Regulations which only recognise professional qualifications of a particular jurisdiction present obstacles to these fundamental freedoms. These obstacles are overcome by new rules guaranteeing the mutual recognition of professional qualifications between Member States. These rules include the seventeen main directives, which fall into two categories: the three 'General System' Directives and the other sectorial Directives dealing with some individual professions, particularly in the health sector. The Commission service concerned is responsible for the day-to-day management of mutual recognitionand, as necessary, up-dating this area of Community law in regular contact with the competent authorities of Member State and relevant professional associations.

As of 2nd July 2001 the Commission has launched
a public consultation on how to improve the EU regime for recognition in all Member States of professional qualifications. The results will be taken into account when the Commission presents a proposal for a new Directive, due before the Spring European Council in 2002, to create a more uniform, transparent and flexible regime in this area. The objectives of this forthcoming proposal, as announced in the Commission’s new European labour markets Communication (see IP/01/276), are to simplify and consolidate existing legislation, to improve the conditions for professional recognition and to liberalise service provision within the EU, whilst ensuring a high level of health and consumer protection


Litterature:

Enemark, Stig and Frances Plimmer (2000) Mutual Recognition of Professional Qualifications in the Surveying Profession
Proceedings, 1st Joint CLGE/FIG seminar on Enhancing Professional Competence Delft, The Netherlands, 3 November 2000


The FIG activities are organised in scientific commissions, e.g. Commission 7 – Cadastre & Land Management with the working group, WG 7.1 - Reforming the Cadastre .
FIG produces proceedings from conferences and workshops, e.g. International Conference on Land Tenure and Cadastral Infrastructures for Sustainable Development – Technical Papers of the United Nations and FIG Conference in Melbourne, Australia 1999, reports, e.g. "Cadastre 2014" , and publication no. 21: The Bathurst Declaration on Land Administration for Sustainable Development , 1999, and provides access to other material, e.g. country reports

For litterature, see the FIG proceedings and publications , and consult the International Office of Cadastre and Land Records (OICRF). The OICRF provides information, often on-line, on all aspects that are related to cadastre and land registration.


Erik Stubkjaer, est@i4.auc.dk, 2001-10-01; -09-28