Further Development of Organic Farming Policy in Europe, with Particular Emphasis on EU Enlargement

Summary

The EU-CEE-OFP project will identify how the complementary development of Organic Farming in both existing EU states, Switzerland, and in Central and Eastern European (CEE) Accession states can be fostered through policy design and innovation. Addressing the issue of complementarity requires a detailed knowledge of present conditions at both production and policy levels. At the production level, it is necessary to gather data on the structure and development of the OF sector. At the policy level, it is necessary to know the existing policy measures and their impacts on that structure in order to identify policy instruments that are successful or have the desired impacts. Having decided what is successful and from a scientific perspective desirable, one must also be concerned with the political acceptability of OF relevant policy instruments and the opportunities available for reform of these instruments.