The impact of EU-accession on farming and agricultural employment in Cluj County

This paper reveals some consequences of Romania’s accession to the EU on farming and agricultural employment in Cluj County. EU15 countries have a different farm structure and a higher agricultural labour productivity than Romania and the Common Agricultural Policy in its present form responds primarily to their needs. Based on the interviews carried out in 2005 and in 2009 with farmers and experts from Cluj County, the paper presents the expectations towards EU accession as well as its short-term effects. Results of the interviews suggest that, in Cluj County, EU-accession leads to the disappearance of semi-subsistence farms and to the decrease of the number of agricultural workers. Farmers are still not sufficiently informed about CAP and the complexity of the administrative procedures, and the lack of professionalism of agency staff and the delays of payments caused many disappointments in the first two years after EU accession.