Final Report Summary - AGRIPOLICY (Enlargement network for agripolicy analysis) AGRIPOLICY is a European support action which focussed on the agricultural and rural sectors of Central and Eastern Europe. The overall objective of the project was to support the formulation of Community agricultural policies through developing networking and information sharing, providing direct scientific inputs for policy formulation, preparing future analyses and strengthening the analytical capabilities of partner research organisations involved in the project. There are twenty five partners, drawn from the new Member States (Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia), the Candidate and the Potential Candidate Countries (Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia - FYROM, Kosovo under UNSCR 1244, Montenegro, Turkey and Serbia). The coordination is ensured by Euroquality (France), supported by LEI (the Netherlands), IAMO (Germany), the University of Ljubljana (Slovenia) and the University of Exeter (UK). The project website at http://www.agripolicy.net provides more information about the project, the partners and the published results of completed studies. The major deliveries of the AgriPolicy project include:(1) A comprehensive set of statistics in 20 countriesThe AGRIPOLICY team gathered key agricultural statistics in the 20 countries covered by the project. Each dataset contains 20 tables. A report on statistics availability in the Candidate and Potential Candidate Countries has also been prepared.(2) Analysis of agriculture and agriculture policy in eight Candidate and Potential Candidate CountriesThe AGRIPOLICY team analysed the situation in agriculture and agricultural policy in the form of country reports in a structure conform to OECD standards. Eight country reports have been prepared (Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia- FYROM, Kosovo under UNSCR 1244, Montenegro, Turkey and Serbia). The main findings are summarised in a synthesis report.(3) Report on the dairy sectorThe report describes and estimates the state and performance of the dairy sector in 20 countries. Each report provides insights into the sector's competitiveness, identifies key constraints to competitiveness and suggests some key policy interventions. (4) Report on renewable energy and its impact on rural developmentThe reports provide a picture of the relevance and utilisation of renewable energy potential and its potential impact for rural communities in 20 countries. Each report provides an overview of the use of renewable energies, a review of national policy and insights on its impact on the agricultural sector.(5) Report on direct paymentsThis report investigates the impact of the current direct payment systems and provides insights into possible effects of different options for future direct payments. The synthesis report builds on the findings of three independent studies: (1) a review of literature on the impact of the direct payments, supplemented with two case studies focusing on the influence of direct payment on farm business decisions, (2) projections of possible impacts of direct payments after 2013 using the Agmemod model and (3) a study of the perceptions and opinions of stakeholders on the effects of current direct payments and on options for future direct payment arrangements.The results of the project have been presented at a workshop organised at DG Agriculture on the 26 May 2010. The findings of the study on direct payments have also been used to prepare a contribution to the public debate on the CAP post-2013 organised by DG Agriculture.
