Five Years of Accession: Impacts on Agriculture in the NMS

Five years have passed since the accession of Central and Eastern European countries to the EU. This article takes stock of the impacts of accession. On balance it has had an overall positive impact on the NMS, although there have clearly been significant differences in outcomes due to differing initial conditions and endowments, the effectiveness of implementing pre- and post-accession policies and institutions, and the overall macro-economic situation in each country. Poland, Latvia and Lithuania seem to have been the leading countries in adjusting to EU conditions. EU membership has led to a significant increase in subsidies received by the farmers and thereby to enhanced farmers' income. The support, however, is not evenly distributed and small farmers remain handicapped in many ways. EU membership has integrated the NMS into a large, rather competitive market offering both opportunities and threats to domestic producers. Trade figures indicate a rather limited ability so far to withstand these competitive pressures. The current CAP is designed and based on the conditions of EU-15 countries. The experiences of the first five years in the NMS indicate that, even with possible modifications, this system does not fully fit the conditions of these countries, especially their poorest segments. Copyright (c) 2010 The Authors. Journal compilation (c) The Agricultural Ecomomics Society and the European Association of Agricultural Economists 2010.