The Greek experience in relationship with the EU and the role of Greek agricultural civil organisations in influencing EU policy - Successes and Failures
PAVLOS D. PEZAROS *
Athens, 2005
For 25 years now, since the accession of Greece to the European Union (1981), Greek agriculture has become an integral part of European agriculture and is fully regulated by the CAP.
Given that the CAP is a "common policy", the policy measures to be decided and applied in the agricultural sector, are under the almost exclusive competence of the European Institutions.
In other words, the agricultural policy measures, which apply in the whole European territory, cannot be decided by the national authorities alone. Decisions are taken in common with the other 24 MS of the EU.
In this respect, the Greek government (through the Minister for Rural Development) actually co-decides the agricultural legislation together with his 24 colleagues and the European Commission, in the framework of the EU Council of Ministers for Agriculture.
* Economist, Director for Agricultural Policy in the Hellenic Ministry of Rural Development and Food,
Vice Chairman of OECD's Working Group for Agricultural Policies & Markets.
