Public administration of agricultural economy sector – the EU experience for Ukraine

Abstract

The traditional role of agriculture is to provide food, create jobs, earn export income, generate savings and funds for investment, and produce primary commodities for expanding industries. Agriculture also contributes to the provision of public goods, makes rural areas more attractive for young skilled workers of different industries connected with the researched economy sector directly and indirectly, has a great influence on the environment, not always good, though. Agriculture is an important sector for the European economy as it provides livelihoods for approximately 10.5 million farms across the EU and, if the entire agri-food sector is included; 44 million jobs are dependent on agricultural production. The public administration of agricultural economy sector in the European Union is executed on the supranational level. The European Commission is the institution that governs and administers the main issues connected with agricultural economy sector of the European Union. Directorate-General for Agriculture and Rural Development (DG AGRI) is responsible for the European Union policy on agriculture and rural development, dealing with all the aspects of the common agricultural policy (CAP). Common Agricultural Policy covers a wide range of areas, including food quality, traceability, trade and promotion of EU farm products. The new CAP is a central instrument to accompany the transformation towards a sustainable and knowledge-based agricultural sector, supporting its resilience and diversity, and promoting growth and employment in rural areas. The effectiveness of the public administration for the agricultural economy sector in the EU was evaluated by analyzing the practical results of its activity, meaning – the intra-EU27 agricultural products exports, which is upwards through the whole time frame under analysis except for the year 2020. The steps made by the public administrators and decision makers of all the levels of the EU to bring the functioning of the agricultural economy sphere back to normal proved to be successful judging by the biggest increase of the intra-EU27 agricultural products exports in 2021 after its sharp decrease in 2020. The trend line built for the analyzed data with the help of exponential function is upward not only during the time frame under research but also during two following years taken for the projection. The projection, which is supposed to be true under the circumstances unchanged, notes the decline of the mentioned exports amount in 2022, increasing to the level of 2021 approximately in 2023. The presented research and its results will be interesting and useful for public administrators and decision makers for all the levels of not only Ukraine and the EU, but of their trade and political partners, academic community representatives as well as beginners and experienced data analysts.