. / This study is about the on-ground implementation of sustainable farm practices supported by policies and directives that form the core of the European Union’s sustainability policy. Its goal is to identify the blockers to effective policy implementation in order to improve the approach to sustainability in the agricultural sector. Exploring ways to engage local stakeholders in farm sustainability has been central to create a holistic understanding about the processes that drive practices in agriculture systems, and the extent to which these processes can be transformed. Sustainability in agriculture is a broad topic, hence this study focuses on one segment of sustainability namely the use and management of water resources in irrigated agriculture. The study’s final recommendations to improve policy design and interventions, however, are general and apply to the implementation of all sustainable farm practices. Practical effectiveness of EU policies and directives for sustainable agriculture is constrained by: a lack of evaluating criteria to measure policy impact and communicate progress; incentives for growers to commit to more than the minimum required, and continuous local renegotiation of proposed measures and programmes which have contributed to a weakening of initial policy proposals. This study demonstrates that policies serve different purposes for different people at different social and political levels. However, sustainability comes into practice on the farm, which is why farmers’ perspective about a sustainable agricultural sector and the proposed voluntary and mandatory policy measures is so important. Farmers’ perspectives are still missing elements in policy design for sustainable agriculture. Co-developing and testing technologies that are meant to deliver sustainability in practice, as well as farm decision support tools, are critical in engaging farmers and other local stakeholders in sustainability and to transform embedded practices and institutions. Collaboration across disciplines is also important to address environmental goals and farmers’ needs in order to extract substantial environmental benefits as well as a long term commitment from land managers in sustainability. This study shows that there are many insights to be gained and learnings to be extracted from scrutinizing policy interventions. It raises awareness about improving policy implementation by providing practical examples from case studies conducted in Spain and in Italy. These insights encourage the use of interdisciplinary approaches, including socio-technical approaches, for an integrated people and technology based perspective on natural resource management to better policy design and interventions and make sustainable agriculture real.

This thesis is an exploration of liberalism in Romania and in anthropology. Liberalism is frequently represented in contemporary anthropology as a hegemonic technocratic practice, rationalist ideology and hypocritically exclusionary politics. I challenge this representation through an ethnography of a British-Romanian rural revitalisation and conservation programme in the Saxon villages region of southern Transylvania, Romania, and the vernacular liberalism of the cosmopolitan youth who have taken this project up. Douglas Holmes has asserted that in the European Union (EU) in the twenty-first century, communities and people are experimenting with new identity projects that fuse the liberal and illiberal in innovative ways. I trace how the rural revitalisation programme brought together romantic, "integralist" visions of the Saxon villages with the EU's liberal technologies of governance to create a set of projects the value of which could be translated between diverse sets of actors, from British tourists through European bureaucrats and Transylvanian farmers. This provided local youth with the possibility of making a life in their home region in a context of significant economic decline and massive emigration. The seemingly disparate liberal and romantic elements, initially brought together in a transnational context, were "domesticated" by Transylvanian liberals as complementary resources that could be mobilised to combat entrenched problems of Romanian society and modernity, as liberals saw it, notably the failure of the state to provide key services and the stagnation of the public sphere. The state's failures had led liberals to abandon it is a source of hope, turning instead to voluntary action, which made the dilemmas of how to mobilise engaged publics all the more crucial. Village liberals' attempts to foster such publics frequently ended up reproducing their own marginality, however. Against conventional representations of liberalism, I argue that its technocratic pretensions can be an object of hope in a milieu where expertise is perceived to be absent as much as an institutional hegemony. I further conclude that the multiple ways in which the liberal and the romantic are combined challenges dominant images of liberal ideology and practice as purely abstract and formal.

Theses deals with agricultural policy of New Zealand in comparsion with the EU Common Agricultural Policy. Subject of examination is their impact on foreign trade in agricultural goods as well as impact on the farmers themselves. On the basis of the analysis of agricultural policies in New Zealand and the European Union is subsequently conducted an evaluation of both policies. The approaches in both territories are then comprehensively compared. In concclusion is outlined the possible future development.

Η εργασία που ακολουθεί εκπονήθηκε στα πλαίσια του μεταπτυχιακού προγράμματος σπουδών “Διοίκηση Επιχειρήσεων Τροφίμων ”, του τμήματος Διοίκησης Αγροτικών Προϊόντων και Τροφίμων του Πανεπιστημίου Πατρών, κατά την ακαδημαϊκή περίοδο σπουδών 2011-2013. Ο μηχανισμός μετακύλισης των τιμών μεταξύ παραγωγών και καταναλωτών έχει αποτελέσει αντικείμενο εκτεταμένης έρευνας κυρίως στον τομέα των τροφίμων. Η παρούσα εργασία αναλύει τα βασικά προϊόντα του νομού Αιτωλοακαρνανίας κυρίως του πρωτογενή τομέα ενώ ειδικότερα εξετάζει την ύπαρξη ασυμμετρίας στον μηχανισμό μεταβίβασης τιμών μεταξύ των παραγωγών και των καταναλωτών στον τομέα του κρέατος στην Ελλάδα. Πιο συγκεκριμένα, η έρευνα επικεντρώνεται στα τέσσερα είδη κρέατος όπως μοσχαριού, αρνιού, χοιρινού και κοτόπουλου. Οι τιμές των τεσσάρων ειδών κρέατος έχουν χορηγηθεί από την Ελληνική Στατιστική Αρχή. Όλες οι μεταβλητές μετασχηματίζονται σε λογαρίθμους και οι τιμές αποπληθωρίζονται με βάση τον δείκτη τιμών καταναλωτή (2009=100). Για την μελέτη της ασυμμετρίας γίνεται χρήση των τεχνικών συνολοκλήρωσης (Threshold Cointegration Analysis) καθώς εκτιμάται και ένα δυναμικό υπόδειγμα διόρθωσης λαθών (Error Correction Model, ECM). Διερευνάται η ύπαρξη μακροχρόνιας σχέσης μεταξύ παραγωγών και καταναλωτών στην υπό εξέταση αγορά, ενώ η κατεύθυνση της αιτιότητας κατά Granger έδειξε πως η τιμή του καταναλωτή επηρεάζει την τιμή του παραγωγού. / The following assignment carried out through of the postgraduate program "Food Business Management" at the department of Management Food and Agricultural products of University of Patras, the academic study period 2011-2013. The price transmission mechanism between producers and consumers has been the subject of extensive research mainly in the food sector. This paper analyzes the commodities the county of Aitoloakarnania mainly in the primary sector while particularly considers the existence of asymmetry in the transmission mechanism of prices between producers and consumers in the meat sector in Greece. More specifically, the research focused on four types of meat such as beef, lamb, pork and chicken. The values of the four types of meat have been granted by the Greek Statistical Authority. All variables transformed into logarithms and prices are deflated by the consumer price index (2009 = 100). For studying the asymmetry are used techniques of cointegration (Threshold Cointegration Analysis) and estimated as a dynamic error correction model (Error Correction Model, ECM). Investigated the existence of long-term relationships between producers and consumers in the relevant market, while the direction of Granger causality test showed that the price of the consumer affects the value of the producer.

Η παρούσα διπλωματική εργασία έχει ως στόχο τη μελέτη του περιεχομένου της Ευρωενωσιακής Κοινής Αγροτικής Πολιτικής από τη δημιουργία της ως τη σύγχρονη μορφή της, μέσα από τις πολλές και ποικίλες μεταρρυθμίσεις και αναθεωρήσεις που υπέστη. Επίσης, επιχειρείται προσπάθεια διερεύνησης του τρόπου εφαρμογής της στην Ελλάδα, καθώς και των συνεπειών που αυτή έχει σε διάφορες πλευρές της αγροτικής οικονομίας της χώρας μας. Για την εκτίμηση των επιπτώσεων αυτών μελετήθηκαν πρωτογενή δεδομένα που αφορούν στα εξής: • Μέγεθος και διάρθρωση των αγροτικών και κτηνοτροφικών εκμεταλλεύσεων • Απασχόληση και ταξική διάρθρωση του αγροτικού τομέα • Εξέλιξη όγκου παραγωγής βασικών αγροτικών προϊόντων-Αυτάρκεια διατροφικών αγροτικών προϊόντων • Εξέλιξη όγκου εισαγωγών και εξαγωγών αγροτικών προϊόντων-Εμπορικό ισοζύγιο αγροτικών προϊόντων Μέσα από τη διερεύνηση αυτή προκύπτει η διαπίστωση ότι επιβιώνει και διατηρείται η πολύ μικρή αγροτική εκμετάλλευση οικογενειακού κυρίως χαρακτήρα, από τη μία πλευρά, ενώ η συγκέντρωση της γεωργικής γης σε μεγάλες ως προς την έκταση εκμεταλλεύσεις καθυστερεί, αλλά εξελίσσεται με αργό αλλά σταθερό ρυθμό, από την άλλη. Παρατηρείται ακόμη, μείωση της συνολικής απασχόλησης στον αγροτικό τομέα της Ελληνικής οικονομίας, ενώ αύξηση παρουσιάζει η μισθωτή εργασία στην αγροτική παραγωγή. Τέλος, η επιβολή ποσοστώσεων στην παραγωγή προϊόντων και η καταβολή Ενιαίας Αποδεσμευμένης Ενίσχυσης ανεξάρτητα από το είδος και την παραγωγή, που καθιερώθηκαν με την ΚΑΠ, επέφεραν συρρίκνωση στην παραγωγή αυτών. Αποτέλεσμα της σημαντικής συρρίκνωσης των αγροτικών προϊόντων είναι η επιδείνωση του ήδη ελλειμματικού εμπορικού ισοζυγίου. / This thesis aims to study the content of European CAP since its creation as a modern form, through the many and varied reforms and revisions suffered. Also, attempts to investigate how implementation in Greece, and the impact it has on different aspects of the rural economy of our country. To estimate these effects were studied primary data relating to: • Size and structure of agricultural and livestock farms • Employment and class structure of the agricultural sector • Evolution of the production volume of basic agricultural products-sufficiency food agricultural products • import volume evolution and agricultural exports-trade balance of agricultural products Through this investigation it was clear to state that survives and is kept very small farm family character mainly, on the one hand, while the concentration of agricultural land in large on the extent holdings delayed, but growing slowly but steadily, from the other. There is still a reduction of total employment in the agricultural sector of Greek economy, while growth presents the wage labor in agricultural production. Finally, the imposition of quotas in the production of goods and the payment of single decoupled aid regardless of type and production, introduced by the CAP, led to shrinkage in the production thereof. Result of the significant decline of agricultural products is the deterioration of already deficient trade balance.

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Then the process of Enlargement has started, it was expected that Accession of much more agrarian and less developed countries from Eastern and Central Europe, compared to the Member States at that time, should encourage the radical reforms of the EU redistributive policies – Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and Cohesion Policy. Some researchers provided with numbers proving that Enlargement without reforming the EU redistributive policies would substantially increase the funding for implementation of these policies. While the other group of scientists noticed that the Enlargement process is getting momentum, whereas the internal EU reforms are postponing. The decision on the CAP reform was taken in 2003 by the Agricultural Council, while the Cohesion Policy reform was agreed in the Brussels European Council of 2005. In the Commission’s reform proposals as well as during Member States’ negotiations much attention was paid, especially in the case of the Cohesion Policy reform, to the challenges of Enlargement. In this paper the aforementioned last reforms of the EU redistributive policies are analysed: the CAP reform of 2002–2003 and the Cohesion Policy reform of 2004–2006 aiming to evaluate the impact of Enlargement on the Commission’s reform proposals and the reform results. It is argued that the factor of Enlargement, although in the Commission’s reform proposals was emphasised as encouraging to reform the CAP and the Cohesion Policy radically, in reality for the EU... [to full text] / Prasidėjus ES plėtros procesui buvo pradėta kalbėti apie tai, kad kur kas labiau agrarinių ir silpniau išsivysčiusių, palyginus su tuometinėmis ES valstybėmis narėmis, Rytų ir Vidurio Europos valstybių prisijungimas paskatins ES perskirstomųjų politikų – Bendrosios žemės ūkio politikos (BŽŪP) ir Sanglaudos politikos – radikalias reformas. Tyrinėtojai pateikinėjo skaičius, įrodančius, kad plėtra, ES perskirstomųjų politikų nereformavus, stipriai padidins ir taip dideles šių politikų įgyvendinimui skiriamas lėšas. Tuo tarpu kiti tyrinėtojai atkreipė dėmesį į pagreitį įgaunantį plėtros procesą bei vis atidedamas vidines ES reformas. Dėl BŽŪP reformos buvo sutarta 2003 m. Žemės ūkio ministrų taryboje, o dėl Sanglaudos politikos reformos – 2005 m. Briuselio Europos Viršūnių Taryboje. Europos Komisijos pasiūlymuose ir valstybių narių derybų dėl reformų eigoje daug dėmesio, ypač Sanglaudos politikos reformos atveju, buvo skiriama ES plėtros iššūkių akcentavimui. Šiame darbe išsamiai nagrinėjamos dvi minėtos paskutinės ES perskirstomųjų politikų reformos: 2002–2003 m. BŽŪP reforma ir 2004–2006 m. Sanglaudos politikos reforma, siekiant įvertinti, kokį iš tikrųjų poveikį Europos Komisijos pateiktiems reformų pasiūlymams ir reformų rezultatams turėjo ES plėtra. Darbe įrodinėjama, kad ES plėtros veiksnys, nors Europos Komisijos pasiūlymuose buvo akcentuojamas kaip skatinantis iš esmės reformuoti BŽŪP ir Sanglaudos politiką, iš tikrųjų minėtoms ES perskirstomųjų politikų reformoms... [toliau žr. visą tekstą]

Prasidėjus ES plėtros procesui buvo pradėta kalbėti apie tai, kad kur kas labiau agrarinių ir silpniau išsivysčiusių, palyginus su tuometinėmis ES valstybėmis narėmis, Rytų ir Vidurio Europos valstybių prisijungimas paskatins ES perskirstomųjų politikų – Bendrosios žemės ūkio politikos (BŽŪP) ir Sanglaudos politikos – radikalias reformas. Tyrinėtojai pateikinėjo skaičius, įrodančius, kad plėtra, ES perskirstomųjų politikų nereformavus, stipriai padidins ir taip dideles šių politikų įgyvendinimui skiriamas lėšas. Tuo tarpu kiti tyrinėtojai atkreipė dėmesį į pagreitį įgaunantį plėtros procesą bei vis atidedamas vidines ES reformas. Dėl BŽŪP reformos buvo sutarta 2003 m. Žemės ūkio ministrų taryboje, o dėl Sanglaudos politikos reformos – 2005 m. Briuselio Europos Viršūnių Taryboje. Europos Komisijos pasiūlymuose ir valstybių narių derybų dėl reformų eigoje daug dėmesio, ypač Sanglaudos politikos reformos atveju, buvo skiriama ES plėtros iššūkių akcentavimui. Šiame darbe išsamiai nagrinėjamos dvi minėtos paskutinės ES perskirstomųjų politikų reformos: 2002–2003 m. BŽŪP reforma ir 2004–2006 m. Sanglaudos politikos reforma, siekiant įvertinti, kokį iš tikrųjų poveikį Europos Komisijos pateiktiems reformų pasiūlymams ir reformų rezultatams turėjo ES plėtra. Darbe įrodinėjama, kad ES plėtros veiksnys, nors Europos Komisijos pasiūlymuose buvo akcentuojamas kaip skatinantis iš esmės reformuoti BŽŪP ir Sanglaudos politiką, iš tikrųjų minėtoms ES perskirstomųjų politikų reformoms... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / Then the process of Enlargement has started, it was expected that Accession of much more agrarian and less developed countries from Eastern and Central Europe, compared to the Member States at that time, should encourage the radical reforms of the EU redistributive policies – Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and Cohesion Policy. Some researchers provided with numbers proving that Enlargement without reforming the EU redistributive policies would substantially increase the funding for implementation of these policies. While the other group of scientists noticed that the Enlargement process is getting momentum, whereas the internal EU reforms are postponing. The decision on the CAP reform was taken in 2003 by the Agricultural Council, while the Cohesion Policy reform was agreed in the Brussels European Council of 2005. In the Commission’s reform proposals as well as during Member States’ negotiations much attention was paid, especially in the case of the Cohesion Policy reform, to the challenges of Enlargement. In this paper the aforementioned last reforms of the EU redistributive policies are analysed: the CAP reform of 2002–2003 and the Cohesion Policy reform of 2004–2006 aiming to evaluate the impact of Enlargement on the Commission’s reform proposals and the reform results. It is argued that the factor of Enlargement, although in the Commission’s reform proposals was emphasised as encouraging to reform the CAP and the Cohesion Policy radically, in reality for the EU... [to full text]

Bendroji žemės ūkio politika suvaidino ypač svarbų vaidmenį plėtojant ir gilinant integracijos procesus Europoje. Lietuvai įsiliejus į bendrąją ES rinką atsivėrė galimybė veikti didesnėje ir aktyvesnėje rinkoje, naudotis ES paramos instrumentais. Tačiau kartu su padidėjusiomis galimybėmis Lietuvos žemės ūkio sektoriui teko priimti ir ES bendrosios rinkos iššūkius: didesnę konkurenciją vidaus rinkoje, aukštus kokybės standartus, prekybos ir gamybos apribojimus. Kol kas nepakankamai suderinti žemės ūkio produktų muitinio įforminimo aspektai tarp muitinės bei Nacionalinės mokėjimo agentūros. Europos Sąjungos šalių muitinėse dar nėra vienodai traktuojamos kai kurios reglamentų, kitų normatyvinių aktų nuostatos, dėl ko kyla nemažai nesusipratimų, teikiant paslaugas užsienio įmonėms. Esant sudėtingų Europos Sąjungos muitinės veiklą reglamentuojančių teisės aktų, reglamentų, kodeksų gausybei, tarptautinės prekybos operatoriams sunku susigaudyti procedūrose ir tvarkose, forminant krovinius muitinėse. Temos aktualumas: Lietuvai tapus ES nare pasikeitė žemės ūkio ir maisto produktų prekybos režimas ir muitinės importo ir eksporto procedūrų teisinis reguliavimo ir jų kontrolės atlikimas. Tyrimo tikslas: išnagrinėti žemės ūkio produktų eksporto ir importo ir jiems taikomų muitinės procedūrų pokyčius Lietuvai įstojus į ES. Tyrimo uždaviniai: apibūdinti Bendrąją žemės ūkio politiką, atskleisti jos tikslus ir reguliavimo instrumentus; išnagrinėti žemės ūkio produktų importo ir eksporto... [to full text] / Problems of the topic: the Common Agricultural Policy has performed an extremely important role in development and extending integration processes in Europe. Upon joining the EU common market Lithuania opened up an opportunity to operate on a larger and more active market, to use the EU support instruments. However along with the increased opportunities Lithuanian agricultural sector had to accept the challenges of the EU common market: greater competition on the internal market, high quality standarts, trade and production restrictions. So far the aspects of customs processing of agricultural products are insufficiently agreed upon by the customs and the National Paying Agency. The customs of the EU member states have yet no single interpretation of some regulations, other provisions of legislative documents, which results in much misunderstanding when providing services to foreign companies. Due to a great number of complex European Union legislative documents, regulations, lawbooks governing customs activities, international trade operators face difficulties when trying to get a handle on procedures and practices when they arrange customs clearing for cargo. Topicality of the issue: since Lithuania has become an EU member state changes in agricultural products and food trade regime and legal regulation of import and export customs procedures and performance of their control have been introduced.

British accession to the European Union (EU) had far reaching economic, political and social consequences for New Zealand, forcing New Zealand to transform itself from a dependent subsidiary of Britain to acting as an independent small state for the first time. Although still in its infancy, the contemporary relationship New Zealand has formed with the EU is quite different to that it first established in the 1970s. It has increasing become more institutionalised, with a slowly developing structural framework that facilitates the narrow areas of cooperation. Dominated by the important economic relationship, the main challenges faced are of an economic nature. But the relationship also encompasses areas of political and social cooperation including people-to-people links, the environment, educational linkages, mutual support for multilateral institutions and development in the Pacific. As a small state, New Zealand is expected to display certain foreign policy behaviours in its interaction with bilateral partners. Small state theory forms the theoretical framework that explains New Zealand's behaviour in its foreign policy interaction with the EU. The theory was chosen for both its perceived usefulness in explaining and understanding the foreign policy behaviour of small states and for the apparent weaknesses of the theory, which is revealed in the case study of New Zealand-EU relations. This demonstrates how the theory is useful for its explanation of small state foreign policy behaviour, but also providing an insightful revelation of the theories flaws. This thesis proposes modifications to small state theory in order to strengthen it, and make it more encompassing of the contemporary realities of small state foreign policy, demonstrating that size does matter when exercising a foreign policy.