Structural Change in Agricultural and Rural Livelihoods

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.

Therefore, this project has two major research objectives:

1. to analyse the agricultural sector restructuring process and rural socio-economic transformation in the NMS8 plus Bulgaria and Romania, with a particular focus on five case countries (Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovenia) and
2. to analyse the patterns behind rural "success stories" in selected EU15 case countries during previous enlargements (e.g. in Austria, Ireland, the new German Bundesländer, Spain, and Sweden) to identify and codify best practices and to draw recommendations for the NMS plus Bulgaria and Romania.

In addition, the project

1. supports policy design by providing policy-makers and the scientific community with scientific single- and cross-country analyses and policy recommendations based on up-to-date information;
2. realises objectives of the European Research Area by networking and developing common scientific reference and
3. stimulates international co-operation and qualification.