Objective
The new EU Member States have already undergone substantial sector restructuring and socio-economic transformation during pre-accession. Nevertheless, a great number of them still display tremendous disparity in most structural and socio-economic indicators as compared to the EU15 average. The adoption of the aquis communautaire and the introduction of community convergence policies should reduce these disparities and contribute to the European Employment and the Lisbon Strategy.
The objectives of this project are:
(1) to analyse the agricultural sector restructuring process and rural socio-economic transformation in the NMS12, with a particular focus on five countries;
(2) to analyse the patterns behind rural "success stories" in the EU15 during previous enlargements to identify and codify best practices and draw recommendations for the NMS.
In addition, the project:
(a) supports policy design by providing policy-makers and the scientific community with scientific single- and cross-country analyses and pol icy recommendations based on up-to-date information;
(b) realises objectives of the European Research Area by networking and developing common scientific reference and
c) stimulates international co-operation and qualification.
Methodologically, the first objective will be addressed by comparative multi-country farm surveys, which will be econometrically analysed with a specific focus on themes that are of utmost relevance for the agricultural sector and rural livelihoods (farm structure evolution, subsistence farming, co-operation among farmers, rural labour markets, income diversification and pluriactivity). This will be complemented by an analysis of structural changes in the farm sectors of two selected regions with the agent-based simulation model AgriPoliS, taking special account of demographic changes. The second objective will be based on semi-structured expert interviews among relevant stakeholders in selected regions of five established MS.
Fields of science
Keywords
Call for proposal
FP6-2005-SSP-5-A
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