The Interests of European Agriculture in the Light of Global Conditions of Economic Policy Making

The article presents conditions under which EU member countries pursue economic and agricultural policies. The authors describe the universal principles of agricultural policy that result from the necessity to retransfer the economic surplus to agriculture. Further, they have analyzed economic policies of EU member countries after MacSharry's reform and have proved that they follow the rule of a 'pendulum'. This rule consists in interchangeable application of different options of monetary and fiscal policies. On the basis of that survey they have constructed a model of pendulum which allows to define the character of economic policy implemented over a period of time. The model has been verified on data of several EU member countries. Finally, they have identified some interrelationships between economic and agricultural policies, characteristic of the period after 1991. The article points to the fact that despite the influence exerted by business cycle on the price scissors of incomes in agriculture there is no relation between farmers' incomes and the majority of macroeconomic indices. This, in turn, allows to conclude that common agricultural policy is beneficial for stabilizing the agricultural incomes and for the reduction of income disparities.