**3. Rural areas of EU member states in Central and Eastern Europe**

The rural area represent the entire territory positioned outside large urban areas comprising small settlements whose inhabitants have an occupancy rate in agriculture, forestry, industry or other branches of rural economy. Development of rural areas is a priority in EU policy because rural areas represent more than 80% of the surface and comprises over 50% of the total population. Due to different levels of development among member countries there is a significant gap between western rural spaces and rural areas of the new member states from Central and Eastern Europe, where the main activity that occupies a large part of the popula‐ tion is agriculture, forestry and manufacturing of raw materials resulting from these domains. Within the EU there is common agricultural policy (CAP), which represents the framework according to which all activities from the primary sector are driven in the European rural economy. Since 1962, when it was launched, the CAP has been a partnership between agri‐ culture and society that has as the following objectives:


European agriculture supported through the CAP must provide an increasing production of basic foods as a result of continuous population increase. It also takes into account the sustainable management of natural resources, supporting continuous development of European rural areas and rural economy.

As a direct aid through CAP, three main directions can be defined as follows:


the Czech Republic and Bulgaria are close or even exceed the 80% of the GDP value. Also, using an important macroeconomic indicator, represented by gross national income (GNI), information can be obtained regarding the total income earned by residents of analysed countries and based on the obtained values a comparison can be accomplished regarding the purchasing power with direct implications for living standards in a particular country. Thus, GNI per inhabitant for the Eastern European countries was calculated, EU Members, for the period 2000–2009 and the results are shown in Figure 7. Visible differences between countries depending on the economy level of development can be observed, but the trend is upward for all 11 analysed countries since 2000, continuing with the EU accession years 2004 and 2007 and

Proceedings of the International Conference on Interdisciplinary Studies (ICIS 2016) - Interdisciplinarity and Creativity

**Figure 6.** Total values calculated for imports as a percentage of GDP (2000-2009) [1].

**Figure 7.** Values calculated for GNI per inhabitant of Central and Eastern countries (2000–2009) [1].

generated positive effects in their own economic branches.

Undoubtedly, the upward trend of GNI per each economy has been achieved as a result of the reforms carried out by each country as a result of the EU accession process, which has

continuing until 2009.

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**•** The aid granted for the farmers income.

For implementing the established measures, CAP has currently at its disposal up to 40% of the EU budget and CAP budget in 2014 was about 58 billion Euros, according to European Union, 2015. Through their work related to agriculture and forestry, the employed workers in these branches have an important role in providing a sustainable management within rural areas, because in these regions are created and preserved natural habitats including fauna and flora specific for rural areas in various European countries that would otherwise be destroyed. While in the past agriculture represented the basic concern of the European rural areas inhabitants, today this economic sector has decreased as percentage share in GDP of countries with developed economies due to the increase of branches in the manufacturing industry [17].

Younger people believe that agriculture is no longer a profession of great attraction and are choosing professions in urban areas, where the income level is higher. Therefore, through the CAP must be supported the initiative to attract young people in rural areas, in order to ensure the necessary continuity in agriculture, but also the income level should be comparable to those in urban areas. In contrast to the Western developed countries, heavily industrialized, in Central and Eastern European countries, agriculture continues to hold a higher proportion of GDP and higher employment rate of the rural residents in this economic sector. Thus, must be analyzed the space comprised outside large urban areas of the new EU member countries as rural areas in which specific activities are conducted regarding agriculture, forestry, fishing, product manufacturing and where the historical traditions and customs of the rural areas inhabitants are kept from generation to generation. Overall, if we refer to the new EU member countries from Central and Eastern Europe, we can say that their rural area occupies most of their territory and population, as we can see from the graphic representations shown in Figures 8 and 9 [2].

So, if we analyse graphical representations made, there are few Eastern European countries where rural area is less than 85% of the total territory. These are the Czech Republic, Lithuania and Latvia. For all other countries the rural area occupies over 90% of the country's total territory and for Slovenia the whole territory can be considered as rural area.

**Figure 8.** The share of rural areas as a percentage of total area for the Central and Eastern Europe countries [2].

**Figure 9.** The rural population of the Central and Eastern Europe countries [2].

**Figure 10.** The rural population density in Central and Eastern Europe [2].

in urban areas. In contrast to the Western developed countries, heavily industrialized, in Central and Eastern European countries, agriculture continues to hold a higher proportion of GDP and higher employment rate of the rural residents in this economic sector. Thus, must be analyzed the space comprised outside large urban areas of the new EU member countries as rural areas in which specific activities are conducted regarding agriculture, forestry, fishing, product manufacturing and where the historical traditions and customs of the rural areas inhabitants are kept from generation to generation. Overall, if we refer to the new EU member countries from Central and Eastern Europe, we can say that their rural area occupies most of their territory and population, as we can see from the graphic representations shown in Figures

Proceedings of the International Conference on Interdisciplinary Studies (ICIS 2016) - Interdisciplinarity and Creativity

So, if we analyse graphical representations made, there are few Eastern European countries where rural area is less than 85% of the total territory. These are the Czech Republic, Lithuania and Latvia. For all other countries the rural area occupies over 90% of the country's total

territory and for Slovenia the whole territory can be considered as rural area.

**Figure 8.** The share of rural areas as a percentage of total area for the Central and Eastern Europe countries [2].

**Figure 9.** The rural population of the Central and Eastern Europe countries [2].

8 and 9 [2].

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Regarding the Eastern Europe rural areas population density, it can be said that large per‐ centage of the total population is established in rural areas and in terms of density values are lower than 20 inhabitants/km2 for Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, as shown in Figure 10. For the other EU member states average values are recorded, for example, Romania with less than 40 inhabitants/ km2 , Bulgaria with more than 50 inhabitants/ km2 , Croatia with more than 60 inhabitants/ km2 , while for other countries the values are more than 90 inhabitants/ km2 ; the highest value is of the Czech Republic with almost 120 inhabitants/ km2 .

The main economic sectors, specific to the rural areas of Eastern European countries, are represented by agriculture, forestry and manufacturing of raw materials resulting from these activities. Regarding the land areas used in agriculture, in Figure 11 are presented the corre‐ sponding values of land areas used by each country for both agriculture and forestry. Poland and Romania have the first ranking places having each over 14 and 13 million hectares used in agriculture, followed at long distance by Hungary and Bulgaria with more than 4 million hectares each.

**Figure 11.** The land areas used in agriculture by the Central and Eastern Europe countries [2].

**Figure 12.** The land areas used in forestry by the Central and Eastern Europe countries [2].

Referring to land areas used for forestry, as shown in Figure 12, Poland with 9 million hectares and Romania with more than 6 million hectares again occupies the top positions, followed by Bulgaria, with almost 4 million hectares, and Latvia with over 3 million hectares. For the rest of the countries, there are areas between 1 and 2.5 million hectares used for forestry.

**Figure 13.** The employment level in the primary sector [2].

Analysing the employed labour force in the primary sector of Central and Eastern Europe countries rural areas (Figure 13), we can see that Poland holds the first place with over 15 million persons employed, followed by Romania with over 9 million people employed and for the next places there are Czech Republic and Hungary with 5 and 4 millions of employed people. Bulgaria has over 3 million people employed in the primary sector.

Also must be shown the direct contribution of the rural areas primary sector to gross national income (GNI) of the Eastern European countries, as shown in Figure 14, (according to Euro‐ pean Union, 2015). Top positions are occupied by Bulgaria and Romania with the highest percentage share of gross national income (GNI), located around 6%. The following levels are

**Figure 14.** The direct contribution of the primary sector to the gross national income (GNI) of the Central and Eastern European countries [2].

around 5% for Hungary, Croatia and Latvia, and the lowest values recorded just over 2% for the Czech Republic and Slovenia by almost 3% of its gross national income (GNI).
