Income effects of different policy scenarios on farms in selected CEE and EU countries
The paper is based on the results of the PHARE-ACE research project "Evaluation of farm level impacts of Agricultural Policy developments in the process of further EU integration in selected Visegrad and EU countries". The objective of the project was to ex amine the possible implications of EU enlargement for farms in the existing Member States (Germany and Scotland in the UK) and selected Central and Eastern European (CEE) Countries (Poland, Hungary and the Slovak Republic). The analysis is based on a common methodology, which guarantees the comparability of results across farm types and countries.
The results of the study reflect country specific problems and show that alternative policy scenarios substantially would influence farm incomes. The adoption of the European agricultural Policy including direct payments would generally increase farm incomes in the applicant countries relative to a continuation of existing policies. Without direct payments farm incomes would be 25 to 35 % lower than under full extension of the reformed European agricultural policy. For the EU countries financial results are comparable under the Agenda 2000 and the existing policy regime, with a noticeable increase of direct payments for some of the modelled farms.
