"Hungary is clearly a beneficiary of the European Union's Common Agricultural Policy and of having joined the EU", the Ministry of Rural Development's Minister of State for Agricultural Economy György Czerván declared at a conference organised in Budapest to mark the 10th anniversary of Hungary EU accession.

During two morning session held on the closing day of the series of events entitled "Shall we prosper or fall behind? 10 years in the European Union", current and former government politicians as well as researchers and experts discussed the state of Hungarian agriculture and the utilisation of EU funding.

During the debate on Hungarian agriculture, the speakers agreed to all intents and purposes that joining the EU had had a positive effect on the agrarian sector. This view was shared not only by Mr. Czerván, but also by former Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development József Gráf, who said that "accession to the EU is a success story with regard to agriculture".

Amongst other things, Mr. Gráf spoke about the fact that at the time of the EU accession talks, Hungary practically had to jump onto a moving train: while those responsible were discussing the conditions for accession to the European Union, in the adjoining room EU leaders were already discussing the reform of the Common Agricultural Policy, the CAP. With regard to the questions of whether negotiations could have been held differently and whether things could have been done in another way in retrospect, Mr. Czerván replied that we should perhaps have achieved a more rapid level of recovery in reference to the 25 percent funding provided to farmers initially in comparison with their Western counterparts, and that we should have fought more efficiently in the interests of receiving more support for the pig and poultry sectors.

Mr. Czerván emphasised that it is very important that we understand why EU agricultural funding is necessary and useful: to ensure that food remains relatively cheap. He also pointed out that it may be easy to harbour anti-EU sentiment, but this is not correct behaviour and will lead to no good if in the meantime we are in need of EU funding.

Director General of the Research Institute for Agricultural Economy István Kapronczai quoted a few figures in his introductory speech to prove the point, including the fact that while agricultural output in the EU had increased by 20.7 percent in 2011/13 compared to 2004/06, the growth index in Hungary within the same period was 22.7 percent.

(MTI / Ministry of Rural Development)