AGRICULTURAL POLICY OF BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA AND THE CHALLENGES OF EU INTEGRATION PROCESSES

Abstract

Agriculture in Bosnia and Herzegovina faces numerous challenges, including global crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war, regional issues like African swine fever, and increasingly severe impacts of climate change. On the other hand, BiH is clearly committed to EU integration, as reflected in current state and entity level strategic documents. Moreover, the country's efforts to accelerate the harmonization of its agricultural policy with the EU Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) have been further motivated by the granting of candidate status in 2022 and negotiation status in 2024 for full EU membership. This paper provides an overview of the development of agricultural policy in BiH from 2014 to 2023 at the state and entity levels (including the Brčko District of BiH) to assess the level of harmonization with the EU CAP using the unique APMC methodology for classifying and visualizing agricultural budget transfers. The analysis covers three groups of measures: (1) market measures and direct support to producers, (2) structural measures and rural development measures, and (3) general agricultural measures. Key macroeconomic indicators such as gross value added, employment levels, and trade balance were analyzed to obtain a comprehensive picture of the current state of the agricultural sector and its significance for the economy of BiH. An important contribution of the paper is comparing Bosnia and Herzegovina's agricultural policy with those of the Western Balkan countries. The main conclusion that can be drawn from this paper is that agriculture is an important sector of Bosnia and Herzegovina's economy, with budgetary transfers to this sector showing a growing trend. However, the process of harmonization with the EU acquis is slow and requires greater decisiveness from policymakers, faster adoption of the legislative framework, and appropriate legal solutions, along with the necessary institutional strengthening to address the current challenges of the EU integration process.