Croatia Joins the EU

Croatia became the 28^th member of the EU on the 1^st July.   The Balkans state has been in negotiations to join the Union for 10 years.  In terms of agriculture, its farmed area is a little smaller than that of Belgium.   However, it has a large number of farmers with over 10% of the workforce employed in agriculture.  The average size of farm is under 5 hectares.  The new member will see full direct aid phased-in over ten years, starting at 25% this year.  Other ‘Western Balkans’ nations such as Serbia, Montenegro, Macedonia and Bosnia are also in the queue to join – despite the EU’s current troubles.  Although not that large individually,  each new entrant must be funded from a fixed CAP budget, and makes financial discipline that much more likely.