agreste

Agreste cahiers n° 3 - septembre 2000

Currently twelve countries are negotiating their adhesion to the European Union, without plans for future enlargement, in one or several waves, nor a schedule having been established.

Currently twelve countries are negotiating their adhesion to the European Union, without plans for future enlargement, in one or several waves, nor a schedule having been established. Numerous economic and agricultural indicators illustrate the large differences between the situations of candidate countries and those of current members : standards of living are from one-third or two-thirds lower than the Union average, and agriculture weighs substantially more in the labour force and in GDP, cereal yields are lower and the dairy industries are less mechanised. However, from the original six-member Europe of 1958 to the current fifteen-member Union, the history of the Community has been one of successive enlargements. Europe has thus already taken in new members who were in a relative situation comparable to that of certain candidates today.
The integration of the states of Central and Eastern Europe, and notably of the large agricultural country of Poland, will change the structure of European Utilised Agricultural Area. The UAA saw substantial changes already in 1973, with the entry of the United Kingdom and of Denmark, and in 1986 with that of Spain and Portugal.