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11УДК [339.923:061.1ЕС]:63(438)
ВЛИЯНИЕ ФИНАНСОВЫХ СРЕДСТВ ЕВРОСОЮЗА НА РАЗВИТИЕ СЕЛЬСКОГО ХОЗЯЙСТВА И СЕЛЬСКИХ ТЕРРИТОРИЙ В ПОЛЬШЕ
А. МИЦКЕВИЧ, доктор экономических наук, профессор Б. МИЦКЕВИЧ, кандидат экономических наук, доцент Сельскохозяйственный университет в Щецине, Польша
INFLUENCE OF EUROPEAN UNION FUNDS ON AGRICULTURE AND RURAL AREAS DEVELOPMENT IN POLAND
A. MICKIEWICZ, the professor
B. MICKIEWICZ, the doctor
The Agricultural University in Szczecin, Poland
После вступления в ЕС Польша получила значительные средства для сельского хозяйства и развития сельских территорий. Постоянные изменения ситуации на сельскохозяйственном рынке, требования потребителей, а также международные условия приводят к изменениям Общей сельскохозяйственной политики. Польша как член Евросоюза оказывает влияние на изменения этой политики. В статье приведены результаты исследований роли финансовых средств ЕС в развитии сельского хозяйства и территорий в Польше. Благодаря этим средствам Польша превратилась в лучше -го сельскохозяйственного производителя в Европе, а изменения в сельскохозяйственной сфере оказались значительными и позитивными.
Following its accession to the EU Poland has been allocating far more resources to agricultural and rural support. Constantly changing situation in agricultural markets, requirements and attitudes of consumers, as well as international conditions lead to a change in the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). Poland as a member of the European Union has an influence on the changes of that policy. The paper presented below shows the importance of European Union funds on agriculture and rural areas development in Poland. Thanks to that Poland has become onе of the best agricultural producers in Europe and changes in agricultural sphere are significant and positive.
Introduction. Joining in 2004 to the European Union Poland expected to gain big profits for rural areas and whole sphere of agriculture. Over three-year period Poland's accession to the European Union provokes a reflection on the impact of integration on Polish economy. It is worth paying attention not only to the situation of the agricultural sector, but also to rural areas,
significantly influenced by the effects of the general economic growth, especially including the establishment of new jobs in the cities and rural areas. When assessing the preliminary effects of integration (though a thorough evaluation requires longer time), attention should be paid to the fact that it generally has positive impact on agriculture, even though not all the fields perceive the improvement of the situation identically.
Constantly changing situation in agricultural markets, requirements and attitudes of consumers, as well as international conditions lead to a change in the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). Poland as a member of the European Union has an influence on the changes of that policy. It is important to participate actively in the work on the CAP health check planned for 2008 and to guarantee that our postulates are reflected in the course of work on the shape and scope of support granted to agriculture and rural areas in the future.
The characteristic feature of Polish agriculture is the fact that agricultural activity is carried out by numerous units diversified in terms of the type of activity, size of holdings, type and level of production. The private sector uses 96.1 % of arable land, including 88.6 of family holdings. The area of agricultural holdings ranges from one to several thousand hectares.
The greatest holdings are based on former state-owned agricultural holdings. The problem of excessive fragmentation of agricultural holdings is noted for the individual (family) holdings sector, the number of which was 1806 in 2006 as compared to 1881 in 2000. The average size of the individual holdings has increased relatively little: from 7.2 ha of arable land in 2000 to 7.6 ha in 2006. The number and area of arable land in holdings over 15 ha of arable land has increased. All other groups of holdings are noted for the decrease of both the number and the area of arable land. High demand for agricultural soil, noted after the period of integration with the European Union, is maintained. Private trade is increasing, thus affecting the increase of land prices.
The rules of land trading in Poland are regulated by legal acts. Also, the purchase of real estate by the foreigners is regulated by a legal act which makes it obligatory to obtain authorization of the Minister of Interior and Administration, and in the case of arable land also the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development. Authorization to purchase real estate may be issued only when the foreigner declares use of the land purchased in accordance with its purpose in the spatial management plan.
Materials and methods. In the research work there were used statistical materials from reports made in Agency of Restructuring and Modernization of Agriculture and source materials from Ministry of Agriculture of Poland. During research work there were inquired beneficiaries of Rural Development
Plan and Sectoral Operational Plan "Agriculture" directed to rural areas and food economy development.
Results and discussion. Following its accession to the EU, Poland has been allocating far more resources to agricultural and rural support. It is due to considerable amounts being obtained from EU budget for implementation of the Common Agricultural Policy and structural programs. In 2004-2006 domestic and European Union funds totalled PLN 89,800 million, including those without payments to farmers for national insurance amounting to PLN 45,200 million [table 1].
The amounts presented do not reflect the achievement of tasks over the years fully, as pursuant to Community law, support is in generally granted only when the task has been carried out. It does not apply to tasks financed entirely from the State budget.
In the area of "Agriculture and Hunting", there were mostly running and property expenditures resulting from statutory activities of public authorities and implementation of aid projects, as well as tasks related to biological progress, plant protection and organic farming. Funds for implementation of some of the tasks have been decreasing owing to the adaptation of domestic agricultural policy to the EU's policy and financial limits on certain tasks considered incompatible with CAP. In the area of "Rural development", financing was obtained by the Agency for Restructuring and Modernization of Agriculture with regard to its statutory tasks, cofinancing of Phare projects and implementation of SAPARD program. Funds within the area were
Table 1 - Domestic and European Union funds for agricultural and rural support in 2004-2006
2004 2005 2006 2006
2004=100
1. Domestic budget funds allocated to agriculture 3,680 3,335 4,046 109.9
2. Domestic funds to supplement payments related to CAP implementation 2,061 3,560 4,668 226.5
3. European Union funds (excluding Transition Facility) allocated to rural areas and agriculture 5,352 8,808 9,801 183.1
4. Budget funds allocated for KRUS insurance 15,130 14,538 14,969 98.9
Total 26,223 30,241 33,384 127.3
Source. Analysis of production and economic situation in agriculture and food economy
in 2006, NRIAFE - NRI, Warsaw 2007.
allocated for supplementing direct payments. In the area of "Agricultural Markets", main expenditures was due to the financing of part of the Agricultural Market Agency activities, including with regard to intervention in agricultural markets within the part financed from the State budget [table 2].
A number of programs were implemented under the European Union funds, both with regard to the running regular support to agriculture and structural programs.
Pursuant to the Act of 26 January 2007 on payments to agricultural land and sugar payments (Dz. U. of2007 No 35, item 217), the system of direct payments is composed of the following: Single Area Payment Scheme (SAPS), Complementary National Direct Payments (CNDP) and payments to energy crops. Eligible under SAPS are all agricultural areas maintained in good agricultural conditions, in accordance with environmental protection laid down in the Ordinance of the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development of 12 March 2007 on minimum standards (Dz. U. No 46, item 306). Complementary payments are applicable to areas of specified crops. Applications for direct payments are accepted once a year. Payments are made from 1 December to 30 June of the next calendar year. This period is identical for all EU Member States.
The scheme of direct payments to agricultural lands in 2006 was composed of the following:
1. Single Area Payment Scheme (SAPS) - 100 % financed from EU budget (PLN 276.28 per ha).
Table 2 - Programs funded by the European Union in 2005-2006 (PLN million)
Pre-accession programmes 2005 2006 2006 2005=100
•Phare 192 139 72.4
•Sapard 1,154 2,084 180.6
•ISPA • 234 •
Structural programmes
•RDP - Rural Development Plan 2,975 3,008 101.1
Including: Financing for the LFA (less favoured areas) 1,652 1,672 101.2
SOP - Restructuring and Modernization of the Food Sector 2,345 2,084 88.9
CAP payments 5,029.4 8,578.9 170.6
Including:
direct payments 3,465 3,696 106.7
Reallocations from RDP 1,044 752 72.0
Market intervention 1,575 1,508 95.7
European Union funds - total 10,370 15,894 153.6
Source. Analysis of production and economic situation in agriculture and food economy in 2006, NRIAFE - NRI, Warsaw 2007.
2. Complementary direct payments (CNDP) to the area of selected plants -financed from the State and Community budget (PLN 313.45 per ha):
- to hops - 100 % financed from the State budget (PLN 962.75 per tone),
- to potato starch - 100 % financed from the State budget (PLN 236.72 per tone),
- to tobacco - 100 % financed from the State budget (A class tobacco -PLN 7,556.66 per tone, B class tobacco - PLN 6,065.28).
- to energy crops - 100 % financed from the State budget (PLN 276.28 per ha):
3. Separate sugar payment - 100 % financed from the Community budget (PLN 33.94 per tone).
Rural Development Program was launched by ARMA on 2 August 2004. It was aimed at supporting diversified development of rural areas and improving the condition of agricultural holdings. Particular aid measures adopted for implementation under the Polish RDP 2004-2006 took account social, economic and environmental aspects to complement the SOP "Restructuring and modernization of agriculture and rural development" implemented under structural funds. At present, acceptance of applications under all measures of the Plan, except for agricultural producer groups and technical assistance is closed. It should be noted that financial resources provided for by the programming document for 2004-2006 may only be paid by 31 December 2008. Part of obligations assumed due to the applications submitted is multi-annual obligations. Financing of these is to be continued under Rural Development Program 2007-2013 [table 3].
SOP "Restructuring..." constituted one of the main instruments for structural transformation in agriculture during the first post-accession period, i.e. over the years 2004-2006. Total SOP budget for years 2004-2006 amounts to EUR 1,784 million, EUR 1,193 - from EU funds [table 4].
Considering the required investment of private funds of beneficiaries, total value of projects carried out under SOP should amount to around EUR 2,700 million. The program was launched on 17 August 2004. Application deadline for all measures implemented by ARMA fell in the first quarter of 2006 (apart from technical assistance). Over this period, 80,265 applications for aid were submitted, amounting to PLN 11,566,552.6 thousand in total.
The Agency concluded 48,548 agreements to the amount of PLN 6,698,565.3 thousand and made 43,741 payments to the total amount of PLN 3,966,615.1 thousands. The number of applications submitted is much higher than the estimated number of beneficiaries, as some of the applicants submitted several applications until the financial ceiling of the program was reached.
On
Table 3 - Rural Development Plan - progress in RDP implementation as of 30 June 2007
Title of the measure Number of applications submitted Estimated number of beneficiaries Number of decisions to grant the aid Amount of aid paid (PLN thousand) Amount of aid paid (PLN million)
Early retirement 56.264 55.000 53,596 1,713,709.6 1,713.7
Support for semi-subsistence farms 171,284 126,000 156,936 1,223,227.1 1,223.2
Support for farming in less favoured areas (LFA) 717,648' (2,052,775)2 900,000 706,235' (2,006,827)2 1,283,936' (3,696,157.8)2 1,283,9' (3,696.2)2
Supporting agri-environmental actions 76,808 70,000 65,630 783,496 783.5
Afforestation of agricultural land 10,368 45 thousand ha of agricultural land covered 8,428 244,266 244.3
Adjustment of agricultural holdings to EU standards 73,474 70,000 70,613 1,962,590 1,962.6
Agricultural producer groups 101 170 80 12,293.6 12.3
Technical assistance 69 - 36 6,322 6.3
Source. The Department of Programming and Analysis based on ARMA data. 12006 campaign; 2 all campaigns in total.
Table 4 - Progress in implementation of SOP "Restructuring..." as of 30 June 2007
Title of the measure Estimated number of beneficiaries Applications submitted Contracts concluded Payments made
Number Value (PLN million)
1.1 Investments in agricultural holdings 17,000 42,581 22,215 20,528 1,736.2
1.2 Setting up of young farmers 14,500 18,857 14,151 14,151 707.5
1.5 Improving processing and marketing of agricultural products 1,000 1,645 1,173 712 682.4
2.1 Restoring forestry production potential 150 57 39 36 36.6
2.4 Diversification of agricultural close to agricultural activity 6,450 7,170 4,286 3,181 206.5
2.6 Development and improvement of the infrastructure related to agriculture 12,000 4,953 3,555 2,362 80,7
Technical assistance - 480 375 301 28.0
Total 51,100 75,743 45 794 41,271 3,477.9
Source. The Department of Rural Development at MARD (drawn on the basis of information obtained from Implementing Authorities)
General conclusions. During the last 15 years, the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) changed radically in response to pressures from European society and its evolving economy. The 2003/2004 reforms marked a new phase in this process, introducing decoupled direct payments via the Single Payment Scheme (SPS) in the most sectors of the first pillar of the CAP and strengthening Rural Development (RD) policy as its second pillar. As a result, CAP reform delivered what was expected from it by shifting away from product support, widely viewed as an origin of the surplus problems of the past. EU support prices, reduced everywhere, are by now close to world markets. The competitiveness of Polish agriculture among EU's one is increasing in key sectors, despite the decline of the EU share in the most commodity markets, and Poland is one of the largest agricultural exporter, of mainly high value products.
Those positive chances were possible thanks to financial system of Polish agriculture support. It is extremely important to use fully the funds available under the European Union budget. I have the pleasure to inform that the Polish Rural Development Program for 2007-2013 (RDP 2007-2013) is the most important program referring to rural development from among all programs of the EU Member States. In seven years we will absorb 13.2 billion euros from the EU budget - we stand before a great opportunity which we must take full advantage of.
Bibliography
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Информация об авторах
Антони Мицкевич - доктор экономических наук, профессор.
Бартош Мицкевич - кандидат экономических наук, доцент.
Сельскохозяйственная академия в Щецине, Польша. Информация для контактов: тел.: 8 (1048) 914-876-950. E-mail: [email protected].
Дата поступления статьи - 24 апреля 2008 г.
