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Abstract
Agriculture and its agricultural policy had important role in the period of
transformation of EC into the EU, by signing the Maastricht Treaty between
members in 1992. This had given a new role to agriculture on the EU market,
which required the “Common Agricultural Policy“ (CAP) to be established. That
represented significant reform in the EU agricultural policy, which defined the
objectives of encouraging the growth of production volume of the basic
agricultural products. Common Agricultural Policy had endured fundamental
reform in June 2003, which created long-term perspectives for sustainable
agriculture and rural development. The EU Common Agricultural Policy must be
directed as an integrated policy which contributes to other elements of the state
policy, above all in the direction of rural area development. Today CAP reflects
almost half century of long change of priorities. The initial objective to increase
food production, regardless of costs, is replaced with controlling the production
surpluses and excessive costs. Redirection towards fulfillment of various social and
ecological goals is also carried out through mechanisms which are in great deal
separated from the production.