RURAL DEVELOPMENT POLICY – NEW OPPORTUNITY FOR CROATIA

Promijenjeni uzorci poljoprivredne trgovine, briga o povećanim proračunskim troškovima za potporu poljoprivrednicima i potreba usklađivanja suživota starih i novih zemalja-članica EU, izazvali su potrebu temeljite reforme sustava poljoprivredne potpore u EU. Svi ti čimbenici doveli su do toga da se naglasak Zajedničke poljoprivredne politike EU (ZPP) postupno preselio u korist osnaživanja mjera za ruralni razvitak. Mjere se odnose na investiranje u poljoprivredne aktivnosti, u ljudske resurse, potpore područjima slabijih proizvodnih mogućnosti, zaštitu okoliša, preradu i marketing poljoprivrednih proizvoda, a upotpunjene su mjerama u šumarstvu, te mjerama promocije razvoja ruralnih područja. Osamostaljenjem Hrvatske započinje i proces prilagodbe domaće poljoprivredne politike novim okolnostima. Sa stajališta ruralnog razvitka, sredinom 1990-ih se počinje stvarati dobra zakonska podloga kojom se uređuje zaštita i raspolaganje resursima u poljoprivrednom sektoru. Prvi važniji zakoni (Zakon o poljoprivrednom zemljištu i Zakon o poljoprivredi) bili su početak velike akcije uređenja i usklađivanja domaćeg zakonodavstva u području poljoprivrede i seoskog razvitka prema europskim načelima i standardima. Uskoro nakon njih, zakonski je usvojen i strateški dokument Strategija poljoprivrede i ribarstva Republike Hrvatske, a mjere poljoprivredne i ruralne politike se reformiraju, pa tako Zakon o državnoj potpori u poljoprivredi, ribarstvu i šumarstvu uvodi nove modele potpore ovim sektorima, nastojeći se, novim kriterijima za ostvarivanje potpore, što više uskladiti sa standardima ZPP. Kasnije se usvajaju i zakoni utemeljeni na uvažavanju regionalnih specifičnosti, te uvode brojni programi ruralnog razvitka na državnoj i lokalnim razinama.Changed patterns in agricultural trade, care about increased budgetary costs for agricultural support and need to harmonize life of old and new EU member-states, have caused a need for fundamental reform of agricultural support in the EU. All these factors led to the shift in the emphasis of the Common Agricultural Policy of the EU (CAP) towards the strengthening of rural development measures. Measures are directed to investments into farm activities, into human resources, support to less-favoured areas, environment protection, processing and marketing of agricultural products, completed by measures in forestry sector and measures for rural area promotion. Attaining independence, the process of adjustment of agricultural policy to the new circumstances started in Croatia. From the aspect of rural development, in the middle of 1990s good legislative basis was created regulating protection and management of resources in the agricultural sector. The first important acts (The Law on agricultural land and the Law on agriculture) were the beginning of great efforts to regulate and harmonize domestic legislation in the sphere of agriculture and rural development according to the European standards and principles. Soon after that, a strategic document The Strategy of Agriculture and Fishery of the Republic of Croatia was adopted, and the measures of agricultural and rural policy were reformed, so the Law on State Support in Agriculture, Fishery and Forestry introduced new models of support to these sectors, trying to harmonize with the CAP standards as much as possible. Later on, some new legislative documents were adopted based on specific regional qualities, and numerous rural development programs were introduced at the state and at local levels