AgriPolicy is a FP7 project (from June 2008 to May 2010) involving 24 organisations from the 12 New Member States, the 8 Candidate and Potential Candidate Countries and from France (Euroquality), Netherlands (LEI), Germany (IAMO) and UK (Exeter University). It builds on a previous project financed under FP6. During the two years, the team will prepare five reports on a variety of issues related to the agri-food chain and rural development:
1) Dairy Chain Competitiveness (March 2009)
2) Renewable Energy in Rural Areas (October 2009)
3) The Impact of Direct Payments (May 2010)
4) The Impact of Accession (May 2010)
5) The Availability of Statistics and Perspectives on EU membership (May 2010)

The first “AgriPolicy studies” were prepared in 2008 and published in March 2009 under the supervision of Dr. Siemen van Berkum from LEI. The research brief was to describe and estimate the state and performance of the dairy sector in the 20 countries involved in the AgriPolicy project.

Each report provides insights into the sector’s competitiveness, identifies key constraints to competitiveness and suggests some key policy interventions. A synthesis report builds on the findings of the 20 country reports and provides an overview of the work.

For the 12 New Member States, the main policy recommendation is to assist the sector in its restructuring and modernisation process by implementing measures that support productivity and quality enhancing investments. The improvement of human skills providing training and offering extension service support to farmers is also a priority.

For the 8 Candidate and Potential Candidate Countries, support for research, extension, inspection, laboratory and market information services and improving state administration capacities are emerging as priorities, together with support for capital investment. Finalising the process of establishing private ownership of agricultural land, and implementing a legislative framework supporting a functioning land market, are also necessary in some countries to help the dairy sector enhance its competitive position.

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

Since the increase in food prices that occurred between 2007 and the summer 2008, the European Commission has published regular analyses of food prices in the EU. In 2008 the DG Agriculture Unit “Agricultural policy analysis and perspectives” published analyses of supply, demand, trade and prices for 14 agricultural commodities over the 1995-2007 period. Regular updates on EU Agricultural commodity and food prices are also published. A “High Level Group on the Competitiveness of the Agro-Food Industry” has also been set up, and a Communication was published in December 2008.

DG Agriculture published in March 2009 its latest analysis on the prospects for agricultural markets and income, which covers the period 2008 to 2015. This is a regular publication from the European Commission. Links to the previous analysis are given below.

DG Agriculture organised a public consultation on agricultural product quality between October and December 2008. More than 550 answers from 31 countries have been received and results were presented at a conference organised in Prague in March 2009. The results of the consultation will help the EC to prepare a Communication presenting options for the development of agricultural product quality policy instruments. The “Communication on Agricultural Product Quality: Product Standards, Farming Requirements and Quality Schemes” is expected to be adopted on 27 May 2009.

The EC published in February 2009 a report called “Five years of an enlarged EU: Economic achievements and challenges”. One section (section 5.3 p 220) concerns agriculture and references to the sector are also given at the beginning of chapter 5 on the role of EU transfers. The report indicates that accession to the EU led to an increase in farmer incomes and helped to improve the productivity of the sector. It also indicates that a side-effect of the direct payments could be a slower restructuring of the farm sector. The report is accompanied by Communication that indicates p5 that “the integration of new Member States agricultural markets and rural economies to the EU was accomplished without any major internal economic or social problems”.

Since December 2006, the European Commission has been assessing every 6 months the progress made by Bulgaria and Romania in the fields of judicial reform, the fight against corruption and, concerning Bulgaria, the fight against organised crime. The latest progress reports were published on 12 February 2009. The previous report published in July 2008 also covered EU fund management in Bulgaria, as a result of weaknesses in the control systems used in Bulgaria and a number of cases of fraud and irregularity.

The DG Agriculture is organising a conference on enlargement on 12-13 June 2009 in Zagreb, Croatia. The objective is to provide a comprehensive overview of the enlargement process and is targeted at candidate and potential candidate countries. The conference will build upon a previous meeting organised in 2004 in Bulgaria. Participation to the conference is by invitation only.

IAMO is organising a conference “20 Years of Transition in Agriculture: What has been achieved? Where are we heading?” on 17-19 June 2009.

The 112th EAAE Seminar (“The role of knowledge, innovation and human capital in multifunctional agriculture and territorial rural development”) will take place on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of The Institute of Agricultural Economics in Belgrade (IAE) on 9-11 December 2009. The deadline for paper submission is 1 June 2009.

The editors of the "German Journal of Agricultural Economics" in cooperation with IAMO are planning to publish a special issue: “20 Years of Transition in the Agri-Food Sector - Analyses of Trade, Markets and Policy”. This special issue will address the development of the agricultural and food sectors in Central and East European countries, with particular emphasis on changes caused by transition. Besides overview articles, the editors are seeking contributions that draw economic, agricultural, and policy conclusions regarding the agri-food sector. Submission of joint publications of authors from transition and non-transition countries is encouraged. The deadline for the submission of articles is 1 May 2009.