Agriculture: A Critical Area of EU Enlargement

Agriculture is among the delicate items of the envisaged eastern enlargement. Major differences between western Europe and the central and eastern European candidate countries in terms of agricultural potential, agricultural structure, performance level of food industry, and agricultural policy are straining integration and arousing fears in both west and east. Most of the CEE countries are more agrarian than their western European counterparts. CEE countries abound in fertile soils and cheap labor. This gives a high agrarian potential which cannot be fully utilized now.