Agronomy journal, Vol. 68 No. 3, 2006.
Review article
RURAL DEVELOPMENT POLICY – NEW OPPORTUNITY FOR CROATIA
Ramona Franić
; Agronomski fakultet Sveučilišta u Zagrebu, Zagreb, Hrvatska
Abstract
Changed patterns in agricultural trade, care about increased budgetary costs for agricultural support and need to harmonize life of old and new EU member-states, have caused a need for fundamental reform of agricultural support in the EU. All these factors led to the shift in the emphasis of the Common Agricultural Policy of the EU (CAP) towards the strengthening of rural development measures. Measures are directed to investments into farm activities, into human resources, support to less-favoured areas, environment protection, processing and marketing of agricultural products, completed by measures in forestry sector and measures for rural area promotion.
Attaining independence, the process of adjustment of agricultural policy to the new circumstances started in Croatia. From the aspect of rural development, in the middle of 1990s good legislative basis was created regulating protection and management of resources in the agricultural sector. The first important acts (The Law on agricultural land and the Law on agriculture) were the beginning of great efforts to regulate and harmonize domestic legislation in the sphere of agriculture and rural development according to the European standards and principles. Soon after that, a strategic document The Strategy of Agriculture and Fishery of the Republic of Croatia was adopted, and the measures of agricultural and rural policy were reformed, so the Law on State Support in Agriculture, Fishery and Forestry introduced new models of support to these sectors, trying to harmonize with the CAP standards as much as possible. Later on, some new legislative documents were adopted based on specific regional qualities, and numerous rural development programs were introduced at the state and at local levels.
Keywords
rural development policy; Croatia; European Union; legislation
Hrčak ID:
26547
URI
Publication date:
25.7.2006.
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