CHALLENGES OF THE LAND REFORM IN THE FORMER COMMUNIST STATES OF CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE

As it is well known, after the collapse of the totalitarian regimes in Central and Eastern Europe, the economic development of the former communist states in the region was subject to a series of systemic transformation. One of the most important was the large-scale abandonment of state ownership in the agricultural sector, a transformation that was essential for boosting economic development. Our article aims to present the land property privatization process in the former communist countries of Central and Eastern Europe, pointing out the obstacles which hindered this action and represented barriers of the reform process. By using a comparative approach, the paper will also underline the main challenges in the land privatization process: state owned land reserves, farm restructuring, land transaction, mortgage, role of public and private sector