OREANDA-NEWS. February 02, 2010. The Ministry of Agriculture has sent to the Justice Ministry for approval a bill that would ease the restrictions applied in Estonia to the sale of farm and forest land to foreigners.

The current restrictions on the sale of land to citizens and businesses of member states of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) will remain in force during the transition period lasting until May 2011. The decision to that effect was made by the Estonian government in March 2009 as part of the process aimed at gaining OECD membership.

Estonia will indefinitely apply a reservation according to which, for reasons of security, restrictions will remain in force that ban the alienation of real estate in the territory of municipalities bordering the Russian Federation and on Estonia's small islands to citizens of and persons registered in countries that are not members of the European Economic Area.

Foreign Minister Urmas Paet said that Estonia's accession talks with OECD are on the home stretch and the accession treaty could be signed this spring.

Estonia's accession talks have been largely completed, and the last OECD committee would give its opinion in April, he said.

Estonia received the invitation to join OECD in 2007. OECD, established in 1961, is an economic club uniting developed industrial countries and most of its members are in North America and Europe. The aim of the organization is to contribute to the development of world economy, as well as to the economic development of member and non-member countries and widening of world trade.