The third AgriPolicy meeting has been organised in Sofia (Bulgaria) on the 28-30 September 2009. Thee meeting gathered 45 participants from 27 countries including speakers from the OECD, the JRC IPTS and from DG Agriculture.

The first day was organised as a training session on agricultural policy analysis and forecast. AgriPolicy members (Tina Volk and Miroslav Rednak from KIS) presented an overview of statistics availabilities in the Candidate and Potential Candidate Countries as well as a method for “Agricultural Policy Measure” (APM) classification. Invited speakers from OECD (Catherine Moreddu), LEI (Hans van Meijl) and the JRC IPTS (Robert M’barek) presented existing tools & methods for impact assessment and policy analysis (Producer Support Estimate Measurement -PSE, existing models & modelling approach and methodology used for market outlook at DG Agriculture). The session ended by a presentation from Gertrud Buchenrieder (IAMO) on multi-objective programming for policy analysis.

The AgriPolicy report on renewable energy has been discussed during the second day based on a presentation from Axel Wolz (IAMO). The last session of the meeting was dedicated to the preparation of the final AgriPolicy report on Direct Payment with presentations from Jaroslav Humpal (UZEI), Maciej Krysztofowicz (DG Agriculture) and Jolanta Drozdz (LAEI).

The second “AgriPolicy studies” were prepared in 2009 and published in November 2009 under the supervision of Gertrud Buchenrieder and Axel Wolz from IAMO. The study contribute to increased knowledge on renewable energies at national, regional and farm-household levels in the 20 countries involved in the AgriPolicy project.

Each report provides an overview of the use and relevance of renewable energies, insights into policy promoting renewable energies as well as an analysis of the impact on the agricultural sector. A synthesis report builds on the findings of the 20 country reports and provides an overview of the work.

		Albania		Hungary		Poland
		Bosnia Herz.		Kosovo		Romania
		Bulgaria		Latvia		Serbia
		Croatia		Lithuania		Slovakia
		Cyprus		FYROM		Slovenia
		Czech Republic		Malta		Turkey
		Estonia		Montenegro		Synthesis

Several reports on climate changes have been published by the European Commission in 2009: a White Paper presenting the overall EU strategy for adaptation to climate change in April, a report complementing the White Paper focused on the agricultural sector in July and a report on the role of agriculture on climate change mitigation in December.

April 2009: White Paper "Adapting to climate change : towards a European framework for action"
July 2009: document accompanying the White Paper "Adapting to climate change: the challenge for European agriculture and rural areas"
December 2009: Commission staff working document "The role of European agriculture in climate change mitigation"
Main page from DG Agriculture on climate change

Following the deterioration on the milk market in 2008, the European Commission established a "High Level Expert Group" to look into the future perspective of the dairy sector. A report on the dairy market situation has been published in July 2009. Updates on the market situation are published every three months.

DG Agriculture publishes regular newsletters and briefs on agricultural trade issues: three MAP (Monitoring Agri-trade Policy) newsletters have been published in 2009 on various topics (US Farm Bill, development of agricultural trades and Ukraine). Building on the report "Agricultural commodity markets - Outlook 2009-2018", the brief published in July 2009 focuses on perspective for agricultural markets.

Accession negotiations started in 2005 for Turkey and Croatia. The negotiation process includes discussions on 35 chapters. For Croatia, 28 chapters are opened, 17 chapters are closed and 7 remain to be opened (the chapter on agriculture opened in October 2009). For Turkey, 12 chapters are opened, 1 is closed and 23 remain to be open. FYROM was granted candidate status in December 2005 but accession negotiation are not yet open.

The European Commission published on 14 October 2009 its annual report on enlargement. It provides a summary of the progress made during the last year in the three candidate countries and the five Potential Candidate Countries. Each report includes a section on agriculture (section 4.11 for the candidate countries and 4.2.2 for the potential candidates).

The 4th International European Forum on System Dynamics and Innovation in Food Networks (part of IGLS-FORUM Series) will take place in Innsbruck-Igls (Austria) on the 12 February 2010.

The 114th EAAE Seminar (“Structural Change in Agriculture: Modeling Policy Impacts and Farm Strategies”) will take place at Humboldt University (Berlin) 15-16 April 2010.

The fifth FP7 call for proposals (call FP7-KBBE-2010-4) opened on 30 July 2009 and will close on 14 January 2010. Selected project will start in 2011. The call for proposals contains 56 topics among which only 3 topics are related to agricultural policy:

- KBBE.2010.1.4-02 (Development of modelling tools based on Farm Accountancy Data Network data adapted to assess the dynamic impacts of the Common Agricultural Policy)
- KBBE.2010.1.4-03 (Assessment of transition pathways to sustainable agriculture and social and technological innovation needs)
- KBBE.2010.1.4-04 (Knowledge systems for farming in the context of sustainable rural development)

FP7-KBBE-2010-4: call for proposal from DG Research

Five calls of proposals for agricultural research have been launched since the beginning of the FP7 in December 2006. Besides AgriPolicy, eight other projects relevant to agricultural policy have been financed in the first call (call FP7-KBBE-2007-1 published in December 2006 and closed in May 2007):

CERTCOST: Economic analysis of certification systems for organic food and farming (Hohenheim University, Germany)
AgFoodTrade: New Issues in agricultural, food and bioenergy trade (Inra, France)
TAPSIM: Trade, Agricultural Policies and Structural Changes in India's Agrifood System (LEI, the Netherlands)
RuDI: Assessing the Impact of Rural Development Policies (ifls, Germany)
RuralJobs: New Sources of Employment to Promote the Wealth-Generating Capacity of Rural Communities (Debrecen university, Hungary)
FACEPA: Farm Accountancy Cost Estimation and Policy Analysis of European Agriculture (SLU, Sweden)
TEAMPEST: Theorical Developments and Empirical Measurement of the External Costs of Pesticides (Thessaloniki University, Greece)

AgriPolicy website: FP7 results