Abstract:

The study assessed the level of agricultural development in 28 countries of the European Union. The research covered 15 countries of the so-called old European Union and 13 countries admitted to the Community since 2004. In order to determine the differences in the level of agricultural development in the EU, the taxonomic Hellwig method was used, which enabled the creation of a synthetic measure based on the most important variables characterising the level of agricultural development in EU countries. This method allowed to present the ranking of EU countries according to different levels of measure and their division into homogenous groups. The analysis made it possible to qualify European Union countries to one of three groups characterized by diversified level of agricultural development. Six countries belonging to the so-called old EU were qualified to the group of countries with the highest level of development, such as the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany and Malta. Most countries of the Community were found in the group of countries with an average level of agricultural development, while the group with the lowest level included Lithuania, Latvia, Bulgaria, Romania. The detailed ranking according to the synthetic measure helped to present changes in the level of agricultural development in individual countries that took place in 2007-2015. On this basis, it can be stated that the greatest improvement in the level of agricultural development among the EU members was recorded in Slovakia. Diversified values of the synthetic measure indicate large disparities in the level of agricultural development among EU countries, which is the result of the impact of socio-economic factors determining the potential of agriculture in individual EU countries and the effectiveness of its use