Implications of Enlargement for EC Agri-Food Law: the Accession Treaty, its Transitional Arrangements, and Safeguard Clauses, December 2003

Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to anticipate the implications of the transitional arrangements contained in the Accession Treaty on the agri-food acquis after enlargement on 1 May 2004. While the combination of the current reform of agri-food law and the system of transitional arrangements will contribute to the complexity of EC agri-food law, enlargement also raises other important implications for the future evolution of EC agri-food law. Drawing on experiences gained as a result of the pre-accession strategy, together with an analysis of the readiness of the new Member States to apply the agri-food acquis , this paper concludes with a number of comments on the future evolution of the agri-food acquis in a Union of twenty-five Member States.