downloaded

IV
Executive summary
the family farms plan to continue at a (semi-)subsistence level or as hobby
farmers. This means that in the medium-term these farms will be relatively
insensitive to policy measures directed towards structural change.
Expectations from EU accession. The attitudes of Croatian farmers towards the
anticipated EU accession are largely negative. There are very few positive aspects,
such as law and order that are expected. Among the negative aspects, the one
most frequently mentioned was that farmers consider EU regulations as a threat to
the survival of their farms. Farmers also fear the prospect of becoming
uncompetitive due to open markets and their small-scale farming structure. These
fears, however, do not prompt the Croatian farmers to apply for the Instrument
for Pre-accession Assistance (IPA), which co-finances farm investments and
investments to upgrade community standards. The Slovenian example shows
that the opinion towards the EU and its agricultural policy could improve as soon
as the (financial) benefits become obvious to the farmers. Therefore, the negative
attitude could also be seen as a sign of lacking information.
Policies versus politics in the negotiation process of the Agricultural Chapter.
One general important lesson from the Slovenian accession experience is that
the harmonisation of legislation is not only an issue of adopting the relevant
laws and regulations. It is also about the harmonisation of administration and
policies. Although the EU clearly carries more weight in the negotiation when it
comes to influencing the content of the Agricultural Chapter, it is important that
the national interest groups formulate their policy objectives very clearly, set aside
national political concerns, and act in concert. Consequently, the negotiation team
must have a common strategy and rely on the same background information for
the negotiations.
Policy pointers
The following summarises the policy recommendations derived from the above
findings.
Recommendation 1:
Balanced structural change in agriculture
Agricultural sector measures and in particular agricultural subsidies alone
should not constitute the public policy portfolio for rural regions. In Croatia this
is recognised, but traditional sector measures still play an important role. Smallscale
farm structures lacking the prospect of future prosperity are the main