The ethics of agricultural policies in the New Member States: a Romanian case-study

Abstract

To become a New Member of the EU means, among other criteria, to apply immediately after joining the entire common legislative framework known under the name of the Community Acquis. In the agricultural field, except some deregulations, the New Member States apply the common agricultural policy (CAP) immediately after joining. Thus, the farms become eligible for direct payments or for investment grants supported from the second CAP pillar. The paper questions whether there are any ethical issues induced by the agricultural financial distribution of the payments between farms and rural communities. The link between the environmental friendly techniques used by the small subsistence and semi-subsistence farms and their access to payments and investments was the first issue that is analysed. Also, the type of investments promoted in the rural areas is investigated in relation to the need for a sustainable rural development. The data show that the subsistence and semi-subsistence farms are the ones that have the most difficult access to any type of payments. This causes an important ethical consequence for the CAP�s policy-makers. How can be a public policy be justified when only the large farms in terms of economical size have access to any form of financial support? On the other hand, the investments promoted by the rural communities tend to support the so called Western type architecture even if the New Member States villages are particular interesting for their traditional architecture. In Romania, for example, the last 10 years caused more damage on the rural architecture as compared with the Communist Regime because the wood architecture structure was replaced by coloured concrete ones.