AGRICULTURAL MARKET IMPACTS OF THE ADAPTATION OF EU’S COMMON AGRICULTURAL POLICY (SPECIAL ATTENTION TO THE CASE OF HUNGARY)

The Eastern enlargement of the European Union is a historical move without precedent. The adaptation to the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) has various impacts. The Eastern enlargement of the CAP raises the most problematic questions in the following areas of discussion: Taking over of significantly higher CAP-prices; Taking over of the “compensatory payments”; Taking over supply control and management; Budgetary impacts; WTO-commitments. This paper systematically analyses these above-mentioned factors. Special attention is paid to the WTO-connections. It has to be underlined that the system of Agreement of Agriculture, the “modalities” laying the basis for the commitments have not properly taken the unique situation of the transitory economies into consideration. As a consequence the EU’s Eastern enlargement shall have difficulties with regards to the application of WTO-commitments, finding of a reliable solution to this particular matter shall be one of the conditions of EU-enlargement. The new WTO Round hopefully can cope with some of the issues and propose acceptable solutions in order to proceed with the enlargement process