SAPARD, which is designed to assist the candidate with agricultural development, will have an annual budget of 520 million euros for the period 2000-06. The objectives of this programme are:
§ To establish a Community framework for supporting sustainable agricultural and rural development in the applicant countries during the pre-accession period;
§ To solve problems affecting the long-term adjustment of the agricultural sector and rural areas;
§ To help implement the acquis communautaire in matters of the agricultural policy and related policies.
The adjustment of agricultural policies in candidate countries is a complex undertaking but the ongoing reform of the CAP, within the framework of Agenda 2000, facilitates this process.
But, currently, the problem is the debate between Brussels and the candidate countries (especially Poland). This country does not accept the way the EU wants to apply the CAP on their territory. According to Brussels, this debate could slow down the process of enlargement.

Ecological problems
In 50 years, the agriculture in the EU has been completely changed: a real revolution in the number of farmers and agricultural workers, in its structures, markets and the technical modernization have increased a lot the outputs. But to obtain costs compatible with the markets, productions were intensified, landscapes and grounds were modified, and the agriculture used more and more water and a lot of chemicals fertilizers.
That’s why the Member States have made every effort to harmonize their national regulations concerning the environment: rules and norms about protection are mostly from the Community. These deal with the natural, industrial and urban environments.
The EU trend to reinforce the protection of the environment should go on in the future. The Europe will now valorize the positive functions of the agriculture concerning the environment (space and landscape management, biodiversity…).