Financial Measures and Instruments for Adjustment of Agriculture for EU Accession

Agricultural development is the first and the main priority of the Republic of Croatia. Agricultural land comprises more than a half of te land area of the Republic of Croatia, almost 48 % of the population live in rural areas and the share of agriculture in GNP amounts to approximately 10%. Since the Republic of Croatia wants to join the EU in near future various sorts of harmonisation of Croatian legislature with acquis communautaire are necessary. The process of harmonisation in the field of agriculture is especially demanding and multi-layered. Sustainability and multifunctionality of agricultural production and rural regions are the very bases of modern agricultural policy in the most developed countries, including the EU. The negotiations held on agriculture between the Republic of Croatia and the EU make even 50% of the total negotiations, which additionally emphasizes the importance of agriculture. Competitiveness of the national agriculture can increase substantially with the help of the preaccession funds, which is the topic of the paper. SAPARD stands out as the most important among them; within this fond the Republic of Croatia can have use of 25 million euros. The same amount is provided for the new preaccession fund IPARD that will replace SAPARD next year. The aims of these funds are to prepare the candidate countries, i.e. Croatia for their participation in EU common market when it comes to accession.