EU Creation And Expansion
9 December 2008 Much had been made of the expansion of the EU to include several Eastern European countries with the potential to become world-class crop producers. In 2004, Poland, the Czech Republic, and Hungary were among the countries to join the Union and benefit from EU funding and improved access to European markets. In 2007, Romania and Bulgaria could become Member States.While the accession countries have improved overall, the past two seasons have been marred by cold winters with minimal snow cover and above average crop damage, particularly for the region’s winter wheat crop. Still, prospects look better for the future.
“The markets in the new EU Member States have been growing rapidly, both pre-accession (due to EU aid) and post-accession,” said Dr. Matthew Phillips of Phillips McDougall AgriService in the Eastern Europe report published in the August issue of Farm Chemicals International. “All these markets grew in US dollar terms in 2005, however the result in local currency was not so positive,” he added, noting that a rebound appeared to be on the horizon.
More notable for the industry as a whole has been the spread of EU policy to these nations. The creation of the EU put what was essentially the world’s largest trading bloc on the map. This also paved the way for efforts such as the European Commission’s sweeping EC 91-414 re-registration effort for agrochemicals and the EU moratorium against biotech crops that lasted from late 1998 until 2004.
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