This week EU officials will inform some 100 Croatian negotiators and their Turkish colleagues about the acquis communautaire in this segment, which is considered one of the most difficult and extensive chapters in the negotiating process.
The head of the Croatian delegation for this chapter, Dragan Kovacevic, said on Monday that at the moment it was most important for Croatia to accelerate structural reforms in agriculture, enhance production and expand areas planted with crops as well as continue projects launched by the agriculture ministry so as to improve Croatia's competitiveness in this segment.
The chief Croatian negotiator, Ruzica Gelo, said that EU officials today focused on explaining the ongoing farm reforms in the EU.
As regards products which Croatia wishes to promote as its brand products, Croatia will have to change the system of their protection, Kovacevic said.
According to him, Croatia has so far succeeded in registering its nine original products, including the wine called 'dingac', the 'kulen', a sort of spicy sausage, and the 'paski sir' cheese.
On 26 June 2003, EU farm ministers adopted a fundamental reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). The reform is aimed at completely changing the way the EU supports its farm sector.