THE DISPERSION OF AGRICULTURAL AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT EU FUNDS ON A REGIONAL AND DISTRICT LEVEL IN HUNGARY

A national objective was realised when Hungary joined the European Union based on the preliminary result of the referendum. Naturally, there were pros and cons about the accession and there were those who refused the European integration. Still the emotion was stronger that came from the future EU membership and the hope in terms of the agriculture that with the opportunities offered by the EU both the Hungarian agriculture and countryside would follow a development course. Because of the accession a lot of support forms as well as the EU institutions became available but considering the impacts there were no clear positions. Obviously, today we know what kind of objective, positive changes were brought by the accession for example in terms of infrastructural and machine supply, broadened market possibilities and income growth. Still we also experience the objective disadvantages such as the stronger competition and the mass expansion of multinational food-processing and trading companies. The scientific measurement and judgement of the developmental changes which are difficult to measure is still a subject of debate. We have done the concentration analysis for two budget periods 2004-2006 and 2007-2013 respectively. Between 2004-2006 the regional concentration is more balanced year by year than the district. In the district values even in this period we can already experience the fact that very few farmers receive a big amount of support. Between 2007-2013 there are no sharp differences in the case of concentration neither in the region nor in the district. The Lorenz curve shows a classic concentration distribution in the Southern Great Plain Region every year. The course of Lorenz curves is supported by the value of the concentration ratio which is the total share of the support of the three players receiving the biggest funds since the indicator has been hovering around the 10% average value in the region since 2006 while in the district we can experience values within a 36% and 17% average intervals. By evaluating the funds data of the Southern Great Plain Region and Sarkad district we can state that by 2013 the concentration has balanced out in both areas still we can experience a significant funds-concentration on the district level