EU rural development policy in the new member states: promoting multifunctionality?

European Union (EU) enlargement has seen ten new member states (NMS) adopt the full range of EU policies. Within this, the rural development arm of the Common Agricultural Policy offers particular points of interest. Member states chose from an extensive list of policy measures developed within the EU15 and intended, in particular, to operationalise the concept of rural multifunctionality within the ongoing CAP reform process. This paper identifies the rural development policy choices made by the eight central and eastern European NMS and develops a taxonomy to ascertain the extent to which the NMS are directing public funds to promote multifunctionality. A number of factors are then identified as helping to influence the policy choices made across countries

Financial Measures and Instruments for Adjustment of Agriculture for EU Accession

Agricultural development is the first and the main priority of the Republic of Croatia. Agricultural land comprises more than a half of te land area of the Republic of Croatia, almost 48 % of the population live in rural areas and the share of agriculture in GNP amounts to approximately 10%. Since the Republic of Croatia wants to join the EU in near future various sorts of harmonisation of Croatian legislature with acquis communautaire are necessary. The process of harmonisation in the field of agriculture is especially demanding and multi-layered. Sustainability and multifunctionality of agricultural production and rural regions are the very bases of modern agricultural policy in the most developed countries, including the EU. The negotiations held on agriculture between the Republic of Croatia and the EU make even 50% of the total negotiations, which additionally emphasizes the importance of agriculture. Competitiveness of the national agriculture can increase substantially with the help of the preaccession funds, which is the topic of the paper. SAPARD stands out as the most important among them; within this fond the Republic of Croatia can have use of 25 million euros. The same amount is provided for the new preaccession fund IPARD that will replace SAPARD next year. The aims of these funds are to prepare the candidate countries, i.e. Croatia for their participation in EU common market when it comes to accession.agriculture, EU, preaccession funds, SAPARD, IPARD

PROGRAMUL SAPARD – DEZVOLTAREA SI DIVERSIFICAREA ACTIVITATILOR ECONOMICE CARE SA GENEREZE ACTIVITATI MULTIPLE SI VENITURI ALTERNATIVE

This paper presents a few general considerations regarding the SAPARD Program (Agriculture and Rural Development Special Preaccession Program). The SAPARD Program represent one of the three European Union financial instruments (ISPA, PHARE and SAPARD) assisting candidate countries to prepare their accesion to the European Union. At the end of the paper, it is shown that since the SAPARD Program started, many companies which fulfill the general eligibility requirements received financial support for their businesses and increase their activities, but the number could be higher.SAPARD, eligibility, agriculture, acquis

Zur Bewertung des ungarischen SAPARD-Programms unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der Investitionen im Milchsektor

Als Heranführungsinstrument verfolgen die nationalen SAPARD Programme zwei Zielsetzungen. Zum Ersten sollen sie den Aufbau wettbewerbsfähiger Strukturen in den Agrar- und Ernährungssektoren der Beitrittsländer unterstützen, indem die Investitionstätigkeit entwicklungsfähiger Betriebe subventioniert wird. Darüber hinaus sollen die Programme einen Beitrag zum Aufbau der Agrarverwaltungen in den neuen Mitgliedsstaaten leisten, so dass die Länder in der Lage sind, die agrarpolitischen Vorgaben der EU in den Ländern zu implementieren. In der vorliegenden Arbeit wird am Beispiel Ungarns aufgezeigt, dass SAPARD diesen Zielsetzungen nur unzureichend gerecht wird. Die Bedeutung SAPARD für den Aufbau effizienter Verwaltungsstrukturen ergeben sich aus der Konzeption des Programms. SAPARD wurde nach dem Vorbild der EU-Politik für die Entwicklung des ländlichen Raumes entwickelt. Folglich ist SAPARD eher an das institutionelle Umfeld der EU-15 angepasst als an die speziellen Bedingungen der Beitrittsländer. Ein besonderes Problem war, dass die für funktionierende demokratische Gesellschaften erforderlichen intermediären gesellschaftlichen Strukturen sich erst im Aufbau befinden. Dementsprechend besteht eine große soziale Diskrepanz zwischen den Eliten und den lokalen Akteuren. Hieraus folgt, dass die auf zentraler Ebene beschlossenen Politikmaßnahmen nur im geringen Maße Einfluss auf lokale Prozesse haben. Die Akzeptanz und die Durchführung wurde weiterhin dadurch erschwert, dass SAPARD zwar als dezentrales Programm intendiert war, letztlich aber umfangreiche Kontrollmechanismen und Entscheidungsbefugnisse der EU-Ebene zugeordnet wurden. Zudem behindert der erhebliche Ressourcenaufwand für den Nachweis einer konformen Abwicklung der Förderung die Durchführung der Programme. Die Bewertung von SAPARD hinsichtlich des Aufbaus wettbewerbsfähiger Strukturen erfolgte am Beispiel des ungarischen Milchsektors. Die Schlussfolgerungen lassen sich wie folgt zusammenfassen. Aufgrund der konzeptionellen und administrativen Probleme wurden weit geringere Fördermittel in Anspruch genommen als geplant. Hieraus ergibt sich, dass die ursprünglichen Modernisierungsziele nicht erreicht werden können. Obwohl SAPARD eher auf kleine und mittlere Unternehmen ausgerichtet ist, profitierten bisher eher größere landwirtschaftliche Betriebe und Verarbeitungsunternehmen von der Investitionsförderung. Diese selektive Unterstützung beschleunigt allerdings den Strukturwandel und fördert den Aufbau wettbewerbsfähiger Strukturen in Landwirtschaft und Verarbeitung einschließlich der Spezialisierung und Diversifizierung bei den bisher dominierenden Marktteilnehmern. Aufgrund der strengen Förderbedingungen hinsichtlich der EU-Standards für Qualität, Lebensmittelhygiene und Umweltleistungen wird hierdurch auch die Einhaltung des acquis communautaire verbessert.The national SAPARD programs pursue two objectives. First, they contribute to the development of competitive structures in the agricultural and food sectors in the accession countries by subsidizing investments into developable enterprises. Beyond that, the programs are intended to foster the development of EU compatible administrative structures in the accession countries so that the countries are capable of implementing and enforcing EU agricultural policy. In this paper Hungary is taken as an example and it is argued that SAPARD meets these requirements insufficiently. The significance of SAPARD for the development of efficient administrative structures follows from the conception of the program. SAPARD was constructed to correspond to EU policy for the development of rural areas. Consequently, SAPARD is more adapted to the institutional framework of the EU 15 than to the special requirements of the accession countries. A special problem results from the fact that, in accession countries, the intermediary structures necessary for functioning democratic societies were in a state of development. Thus, large social discrepancies between the elites and the local actors exist. From this it follows that policies determined on central levels will have but little impact on local processes. Furthermore, even though SAPARD was intended to be a decentralized program, several control mechanisms and decision competences remain only at the EU level. Thus, significant resources have to be allocated to document compliance with the EU requirements. The Hungarian milk sector was chosen for assessing SAPARD regarding the development of competitive structures. The arguments can be summarized as follows: Because of conceptual and administrative problems, far less funds were allocated than expected. Because of this, the original modernization goals could not be achieved to the full extent. However, although SAPARD was directed towards small- and medium- sized enterprises, the main beneficiaries from investment assistance were larger firms in agriculture and food processing. This selective support accelerated structural change and fosters the development of competitive structures, including specialization and diversification of so far dominant market participants. In addition, as a result of the strict rules regarding the compliance the EU quality standards, the program improved the implementation and enforcement of the acquis communautaire

Agriculture in new Member States - expectations and lessons learned

Agricultural and Food Policy,

The effect of funding the investments in the Romanian agricultural holdings through the pre-accession Programs

In the pre-accession period, in addition to the support to all agricultural holdings by EU funded programs, specific national measures were also applied, together with massive allocation of funds from the national budget in order to support the agricultural producers. The present paper is analyzing the results of SAPARD Program implementation (measure 3.1 Investments on agricultural holdings), as well as of the nationally funded programs. One third of the total funds were allocated for this measure. The present paper is analyzing the eligible projects, as compared to those under the nationally funded investment programs, their distribution by counties and development regions, investment types and volumes, and legal status of the applicant farms, as well as the impact of investments upon the establishment of new farms. At the same time, the private consultancy and design firms, as well as the agricultural consultancy offices at county level had an important contribution in supporting the farmers to carry out over 3600 eligible projects.investments on agricultural holdings, SAPARD Program, Romania, Agricultural and Food Policy, Agricultural Finance,

The role of foreign capital investments and the European Union Funds in management of regional and local development.

A shortfall of capital constitutes a major barrier of regional and local development. Introduced economical and social transformations started a decade ago had opened Polish economy to the inflow of foreign capital. Both the central government as well as regional and even local authorities spent a lot of efforts to attract foreign investments into the country and as a result of these exertions at the end of 2002 foreign investment stock exceeded 65 Bln US dollars, including more than 61 Bln dollars in huge investments (exceeding 1 Mln dollars). The peak inflow of foreign direct investments to Poland was in 2000 when more that 10 Bln US dollars reinforced Polish economy. However, significant drop was observed in the following years (2001 – 7 Bln dollars, 2002 – 6 Bln dollars). Over the course of political and economical transformation of Polish economy and transition into the market-driven economy near 50 thousand business ventures engaging foreign capital were formed. Unfortunately only a little bit more than 700 found favorable environment in the Lublin region. The Lublin region is the third largest region in Poland. As revealed by our survey presently some 22% out of 213 local communities in the region, also called ‘gminas’, recognize the importance of foreign direct investments in stimulating local social and economical development and it is reflected in their development strategies. Joint venture companies with foreign capital operate in 87 gminas of the Lublin region, and 93 local communities successfully applied for structural funds made available by the European Union to the newly accessing countries (PHARE – 32 gminas, SAPARD – 81 gminas). As regards diversification of financial resources to support local development a trail has already been blazed by many local communities successfully attracting foreign capital and the EU funds. The present paper, based on the research carried out by Department of Economics of Lublin University of Technology, surveys the actual role and perspectives of old and emerging opportunities in terms of financing local and regional development.