THE AGRICULTURAL POLICY OF THE EU AND HUNGARIAN AGRICULTURE IN PREPARATION FOR EU ACCESSION
THE AGRICULTURAL POLICY OF THE EU AND HUNGARIAN AGRICULTURE IN PREPARATION FOR EU ACCESSION

Summary/Abstract: The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) of the EU has always been an object of criticism since it was formed. The main reason for this is that its subject, agriculture –under the influence of the agricultural policy among others – is undergoing changes in terms of its structure, resources, incomes, and roles in national and Community economies. The CAP and the Hungarian agricultural policy can be compared. There are three main parts of agricultural policy in general. The first one is the ‘internal’ part of the policy, such as the policy on land ownership and leasehold, the policy on production structure, income policy including subsidy policy, the policy on technical issues, and the policy on the institution system. The second part of agricultural policy is the ‘border policies’ related to the environment, rural development, socio-political issues and social conditions (the best known being the policy on co-operative societies). The third part of the agricultural policy is the ‘external’ policies, related to the population, input and output side relationships and connection with distributors. The current tendencies of change in agriculture can be deduced as well and summarised in four points: reduction of protectionism; differentiated reduction of mass production; treating agriculture and rural development together; restoring the harmony between agriculture and the environment. The future competitiveness of Hungarian agriculture strongly depends on the convergence or divergence between the relative parts of the agricultural policy in the EU and Hungary in the next one and half years. The author investigates the similarities and differences of the current situation from this point of view. On the basis of the analysis he calls attention to potential losses due late responses and the lack of some necessary changes in the Hungarian agricultural policy.

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