Legislation on The Protection of Agricultural Land in the context of the implementation of the Thematic Strategy for Soil Protection in Slovak Conditions

Protecting the qualitative aspect of the agricultural land is in the interest of European Union policies and Slovakia as well. The EU adopted in 2006 a Thematic Strategy for Soil Protection to ensure protection and sustainable use of land, including agricultural land. The aim of this paper is to analyze and evaluate legislation protecting agricultural land in the context of the implementation of the Thematic Strategy for Soil Protection in Slovakia. The basic legislation for the protection of agricultural land in Slovakia is the Act No. 220/2004 Coll. on the conservation and use of agricultural land and amending Act No. 245/2003 Coll. concerning integrated pollution prevention and control and amending certain laws, as amended, which provides a basic framework for conservation of the agricultural land. In terms of preserving, agricultural land has significant importance in the Common Agricultural Policy -pillar I and II which stipulate cross-compliance requirements, requirements for agri-environmental measures for applicants for single area payment scheme, for applicants for support under agri-environmental measures respectively.