ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to present a descriptive analysis about how the European Union (EU) perceives and manages the common European interests in the context of globalization and of agro-food political and economic affairs. It explains the difficulties the EU must cope with if the Common Agricultural Policy must be reformed as a precondition for the enlargement of the EU with the ten candidate countries in Central and Eastern Europe. The chapter focuses on the EU political administrative system in the case of animal disease crisis, as this shows the differences in the drives of the EU member states to promote the enlargement. The EU single market programme and liberalization under the regime of the World Trade Organization have generally improved access conditions for the EU trading partners and increased the exposure of the EU economy to international competition and structural change.
