Coalition negotiators seal agreement on environment and farm programme

Leaders of the three parties seeking to form a future government have agreed not to relax existing environmental limits on mining brown coal. The agreement between negotiators from the Civic Democrats, TOP 09 and Public Affairs party was arrived at late Tuesday as they sealed an agreement on the environment and farming chapter of their negotiations. They also agreed to draw up a new energy and raw materials policy. On agriculture, the negotiators agreed to speed up the sale of state-owned land already being farmed and tighten the rules for building on green field sites.