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Rural poverty is practically nonexistent in the European Union (EU) and in Northern Europe but it is a growing threat to people in rural areas in Eastern Europe and parts of Southern Europe. In those regions, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, many countries are still going through a difficult economic, social and political transition. In the context of rural poverty, Europe is a continent of sharp contrasts. While poverty in parts of Eastern and Southern Europe is on the rise, human development indicators confirm that living conditions in all of the EU countries are among the best in the world. One out of five Europeans — 93 million people — lives under the poverty line. The poor include rural people in Central and Eastern Europe and ethnic minorities such as the Roma, who are among the poorest people in Europe. The Roma comprise almost 40 per cent of poor people in Romania and Bulgaria. More than eight out of ten in the Republic of Moldova live below the poverty line, many of them in rural areas. In the southern and eastern zones of Europe, agriculture earns 30 per cent or more of GDP and a large proportion of the population is rural. More than half of the people in Albania, Armenia and the Republic of Moldova live in rural areas. In the heavily industrialized northern and western zones of Europe, agriculture contributes one tenth of the gross domestic product (GDP). The rural population varies from 25 to 40 per cent of total population. The EU earmarks a significant part of its common budget for development of the least advantaged rural areas within the Union. Development funds that are an integral component of the EU’s agricultural policy will benefit the Eastern European countries that have recently become members of the EU. An additional part of the EU’s common development budget is allocated for poverty reduction in developing countries throughout the world. Read more:
Eastern Europe (and the Newly Independent States) Widespread poverty is a relatively new phenomenon in Eastern Europe and the Newly Independent States. Until recently, most people enjoyed secure employment and guaranteed pension benefits. Since the collapse of the former communist system in the region, poverty has increased at a pace unparalleled elsewhere in recent times. According to recent data, nearly one person in five lives below the poverty line and poverty affects five times more people than a decade ago. In many rural areas, former collective and state farms have been privatized, leaving rural workers unemployed and with few opportunities for alternative employment. Most privatized farms have divested social assets such as schools, health care services and community centres, and public administrations lack the financial and institutional capacity to manage them. In search of jobs and services, many rural people in the region have migrated to urban areas. Yet in several countries, including Romania, many urban dwellers have migrated to rural areas where they can have some some food security. In Eastern Europe, the incidence of rural poverty is from one to three times that of poverty in urban areas. Key factors in rural poverty are distances from the markets of Western Europe and lack of local employment opportunities. Scarcity of land and plot fragmentation are factors in rural poverty in Romania and Bulgaria. In the Balkans, the majority of poor people live in the rural areas of Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. In Bosnia and Herzegovina and in Albania, rural poverty has deepened as a result of recent conflicts and the consequent loss of assets. For many rural poor people, remittances from family members who have emigrated are a vital source of income. Remittances also inject cash into the rural economy. Read more:
In the recently enlarged Europe, 90 per cent of the territory is rural, and more than half of the total population lives in rural areas. The EU Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) has played a key role in rural development. Over the decades since the establishment of the European Community (EC), the CAP has supported agriculture and rural development in member countries through direct support to production and producers and specific programmes in the least favoured regions. For the period from 2000 to 2006, EU funding for rural development amounts to more than US$68.4 billion. Since May 2004, the
ten new Eastern European member countries of the EU — Bulgaria,
the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania,
Slovakia and Slovenia — have benefited from specific rural development
initiatives amounting to about US$10.1 billion. These funds will
help countries like Romania, where agriculture accounts for more than
40 per cent of employment, restructure their agricultural
and rural sectors. Investments will improve living conditions in rural
areas and diversify sources of rural income, helping raise incomes
to common agricultural development standards. To address the rural
development needs of the ten new EU members, there will be an increase
in the CAP budget — to US$16.9 billion per year for a six-year
period.
In addition to playing a key role in reducing
rural poverty within the EU’s own borders, the EC and EU member
countries are major international donors, supporting initiatives to
reduce poverty in the developing world. Poverty reduction is the principal
objective of the EC’s development policy. The EC helps national
governments define their national development and poverty reduction
strategies and provides a common framework for interventions by the
EC and EU member countries. |
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Less than 530
530 - 1,250
1,250 - 3,000
3,000 - 9,130
More
than 9,130
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