downloaded

1 Introduction 4
One of Croatia's main political objectives is the accession to the European Union
(EU) which is planned for the year 2009. For a number of years the country has
been preparing for a full EU membership. This choice seems straight-forward in
view of the close historical, cultural and geographical links. With some delay
due to the war in the 1990s, Croatia officially applied for membership in
February 2003, In June 2004 the European Council confirmed Croatia’s status as
candidate country. The accession negotiations started in October 2005. The latest
progress report by the EU confirms that Croatia has improved in many regards.
Therefore, it seems likely that Croatia will become a member of the EU within
the next years.
In view to this, the status and development of the agricultural sector and the rural
economy at large will play an important role for different reasons. On the one hand,
rural regions not only fulfil unique economic, social and environmental functions,
but are usually more affected by transitional change than their urban counterparts.
On the other hand, in view of the accession preparations, rural areas and
particularly the agricultural sector require special attention as the Common
Agricultural Policy (CAP) is not only the policy field with the highest share in
the EU budget, but also with the highest degree of regulation at the EU level.
Hence, one the one hand, rural areas will benefit from additional financial
means: From 2007 until its accession to the EU, Croatia will be supported by
EU funding of up to € 142 million per year 5 of which a considerable amount will
flow into rural areas (Instrument for Pre-accession Assistance, IPA). But on the
other hand, the CAP demands high efforts towards the adoption of regulations
and measures as well as structural change; it will result in winners and losers
with regard to the triggered changes in rural structures. As it was the case in the
recently acceded EU member states, many farmers in Croatia fear that they will
not be capable to successfully compete in the single market after joining the EU.
4
Authors of this Chapter are Judith Möllers and Gertrud Buchenrieder.
5
This is about 5% of the agricultural sector's present contribution to Croatia's gross domestic
product (GDP).