Impact of European Union Membership on Agriculture and Rural Development in Newly Acceded Member States : Drawing Lessons for Serbia
This Policy Note looks at impacts of European Union accession on agriculture and rural sectors, taking into account specific sectoral features and policy choices pre- and post-accession. The most important lesson learned from recently acceded member states is that policy choices before accession wil...
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| Format: | Report |
| Language: | English en_US |
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World Bank, Washington, DC
2016
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/10986/24170 |
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okr-10986-241702021-04-23T14:04:20Z Impact of European Union Membership on Agriculture and Rural Development in Newly Acceded Member States : Drawing Lessons for Serbia Schuman, Irina Goss, Stephen Smith, Garry EUROPEAN UNION EU EU ACCESSION COMMON AGRICULTURE POLICY CAP CANDIDATES COUNTRIES NMS IPARD INSTRUMENT FOR PRE-ACCESSION ASSISTANCE IN RURAL DEVELOPMENT NEW MEMBER STATES This Policy Note looks at impacts of European Union accession on agriculture and rural sectors, taking into account specific sectoral features and policy choices pre- and post-accession. The most important lesson learned from recently acceded member states is that policy choices before accession will largely determine whether the agriculture sector will be able to fully reap the benefits of EU membership, by expanding trade, or will struggle in the face of increased market pressure. Every EU candidate country faces a twofold challenge: it needs to direct its agriculture and rural development policy towards increased sectoral competitiveness, and align its legal framework and institutions with the EU membership requirements. Far too often, fulfilling the latter becomes the leading priority, while some underlying sectoral challenges are overlooked. These fail to receive appropriate support pre- and post- accession − due to suboptimal domestic policies and/or foregone EU funding opportunities. The unresolved issues may continue to linger once the country joins the EU, and diminish the effectiveness of EU policies and funding. Serbia is at the very junction where this challenge needs to be addressed. Some producers have already started to benefit from trade liberalization, with strong growth in response to a rapid increase in exports (cereals, oilseeds, fresh fruit and vegetables); others are unable to adapt and are dwindling (dairy and meat production). Based on past experience and taking into account the key features of its agriculture sector, Serbia needs to use this short window of opportunity to focus on re-calibrating its budget resources so that they better stimulate the development of competitive farm units. In parallel, it needs to ensure that alignment with EU requirements – both in policy and institutional terms – remains on track, yet it does not sideline the needed sector transformation prior to EU accession. 2016-04-26T21:26:39Z 2016-04-26T21:26:39Z 2016-04 Report http://hdl.handle.net/10986/24170 English en_US CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo/ World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Economic & Sector Work :: Policy Note Economic & Sector Work Europe and Central Asia Serbia |
| repository_type |
Digital Repository |
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Foreign Institution |
| institution |
Digital Repositories |
| building |
World Bank Open Knowledge Repository |
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World Bank |
| language |
English en_US |
| topic |
EUROPEAN UNION EU EU ACCESSION COMMON AGRICULTURE POLICY CAP CANDIDATES COUNTRIES NMS IPARD INSTRUMENT FOR PRE-ACCESSION ASSISTANCE IN RURAL DEVELOPMENT NEW MEMBER STATES |
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EUROPEAN UNION EU EU ACCESSION COMMON AGRICULTURE POLICY CAP CANDIDATES COUNTRIES NMS IPARD INSTRUMENT FOR PRE-ACCESSION ASSISTANCE IN RURAL DEVELOPMENT NEW MEMBER STATES Schuman, Irina Goss, Stephen Smith, Garry Impact of European Union Membership on Agriculture and Rural Development in Newly Acceded Member States : Drawing Lessons for Serbia |
| geographic_facet |
Europe and Central Asia Serbia |
| description |
This Policy Note looks at impacts of European Union accession on agriculture and rural sectors, taking into account specific sectoral features and policy choices pre- and post-accession. The most important lesson learned from recently acceded member states is that policy choices before accession will largely determine whether the agriculture sector will be able to fully reap the benefits of EU membership, by expanding trade, or will struggle in the face of increased market pressure.
Every EU candidate country faces a twofold challenge: it needs to direct its agriculture and rural development policy towards increased sectoral competitiveness, and align its legal framework and institutions with the EU membership requirements. Far too often, fulfilling the latter becomes the leading priority, while some underlying sectoral challenges are overlooked. These fail to receive appropriate support pre- and post- accession − due to suboptimal domestic policies and/or foregone EU funding opportunities. The unresolved issues may continue to linger once the country joins the EU, and diminish the effectiveness of EU policies and funding.
Serbia is at the very junction where this challenge needs to be addressed. Some producers have already started to benefit from trade liberalization, with strong growth in response to a rapid increase in exports (cereals, oilseeds, fresh fruit and vegetables); others are unable to adapt and are dwindling (dairy and meat production). Based on past experience and taking into account the key features of its agriculture sector, Serbia needs to use this short window of opportunity to focus on re-calibrating its budget resources so that they better stimulate the development of competitive farm units. In parallel, it needs to ensure that alignment with EU requirements – both in policy and institutional terms – remains on track, yet it does not sideline the needed sector transformation prior to EU accession. |
| format |
Report |
| author |
Schuman, Irina Goss, Stephen Smith, Garry |
| author_facet |
Schuman, Irina Goss, Stephen Smith, Garry |
| author_sort |
Schuman, Irina |
| title |
Impact of European Union Membership on Agriculture and Rural Development in Newly Acceded Member States : Drawing Lessons for Serbia |
| title_short |
Impact of European Union Membership on Agriculture and Rural Development in Newly Acceded Member States : Drawing Lessons for Serbia |
| title_full |
Impact of European Union Membership on Agriculture and Rural Development in Newly Acceded Member States : Drawing Lessons for Serbia |
| title_fullStr |
Impact of European Union Membership on Agriculture and Rural Development in Newly Acceded Member States : Drawing Lessons for Serbia |
| title_full_unstemmed |
Impact of European Union Membership on Agriculture and Rural Development in Newly Acceded Member States : Drawing Lessons for Serbia |
| title_sort |
impact of european union membership on agriculture and rural development in newly acceded member states : drawing lessons for serbia |
| publisher |
World Bank, Washington, DC |
| publishDate |
2016 |
| url |
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/24170 |
| _version_ |
1764455833733693440 |