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  • The European Union and competitiveness
    15-19
    Views:
    105

    I define first of all the competitiveness in my study „Analysing the competitiveness of the European Union”. After that I turn to the analysis of the competitiveness of the EU. The European competitiveness index and its concept were of great assistance during the analyses. The concept of the European competitiveness index has three main components: creative economy, economic performance, access to infrastructure. It is unambiguous that the European Union can only sustain and increase its position reached in the world economy, when its member states commit themselves for the completion of the knowledge based economic policy striving for competitiveness. The Europe 2020 strategy and the budget period 2007–2013 emphasize the outstanding role of competitiveness and urge to take the necessary measures.

  • System of relations between competitiveness and social cohesion in the European Union (2007–2020)
    39-45
    Views:
    128

    I my current essay I tried to prove that the European Union modified its economic policy due to the financial and economic crisis and the fierce global competitiveness requirements. The main emphasis was laid on the increase of competitiveness. Competitiveness became preferred
    to cohesion and the economic and social closing up of the newly joined Middle-Eastern European countries. The funds for competitiveness for growth and employment increase by 6–7% yearly during the financial perspective between 2007–2013. On the contrary the funds for agriculture and rural development decrease by 3% yearly in this period. The tendency remains unchanged during the financial perspective 2014–2020.
    This tendency strengthens the establishment of the two speed Europe concept and causes tensions between the core regions and the peripheries.

  • Cohesion and competitiveness of the European Union at strategic level
    29-33
    Views:
    98

    After the relaunchment of the Lisbon strategy, the cohesion policy of the EU concentrates even stronger on the establishment of the knowledge based economy, on R&D activities and innovations. In the first chapter I demonstrate the funds division of the convergence and regional competitiveness targets in the financial perspective between 2007–2013. The first sheet shows unambiguously that the new member states from Middle-Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean countries spend their funds on convergence and cohesion issues. The situation is contrary in the highly developed Western-European countries, in the core regions, where decisive part of the funds are spent on competitiveness issues. In the second chapter of the study I present the Europe 2020 strategy of the EU, that is a crucial paradigm change in the European strategy-making. While the Lisbon strategy focused on the social cohesion of the European Union, the Europe 2020 strategy strives the fostering of the European competitiveness. In the third part of the study I make a comparison how the funds-allocation altered during the two financial perspectives.

  • Examining the competitiveness of the Great Plain region through a few basic indicators
    35-40
    Views:
    63

    There are significant differences in the level of economic development and social relations between the various regions of Hungary, consequently, their competitiveness is also dissimilar. The term ’competitiveness’ has recently gained a regional meaning from various aspects. The unified interpretation of ’competitiveness’ is applicable to all basic units of the economy in a flexible way, and is therefore applicable on regional level as well. Regional competitiveness is measured against four economic categories: regional income per capita, work efficiency, employment rate and age composition. In addition to an overview of the region, this study will analyse the above components of regional competitiveness based on data describing the region.

  • The correlation of foreign language proficiency, employment and regional competitiveness in the North Great Plain Region of Hungary
    74-82
    Views:
    59

    Employment is one of the basic factors when evaluating a region’s competitiveness. Boosting employment figures will also increase individual income. However, the creation of jobs alone will not solve the problems of unemployment, as labour force with skills matched to labour market demands should also be available. Continuous development of the labour force, adjusted to recent needs in the labour market, can contribute to a region’s competitiveness. Mismatches between education and labour market requirements would be too expensive, especially for backward regions like the North Great Plain Region of Hungary. Foreign language education should also be adapted to the changing economy when selecting target languages and language skills. A workforce equipped with contemporary and needed second language skills can be an element in making a region attractive for investors. Although current trends show signs of improvement, Hungary and especially the North Great Plain Region still does not have much to offer in this respect. The paper examines the reasons for the low level of second language acquisition among Hungarians and the population of the North Great Plain Region and explores the ways foreign language knowledge could promote economic development.

  • Differences in Regional Development in the Northern Great Plain Region
    170-180
    Views:
    119

    An important ambition of EU regional politics is the reduction of disparities. An important strategical objective of the Commission is to terminate underdevelopment and to ensure the development of the regions based on the principles of solidarity, equity and justice. The commission has dedicated forty percent of its common budget to achieve these goals. The differences in development are significantly influenced by the economic characteristics of the specific region, the quality and quantity of human resources, the accessibility of the region and factors influencing local quality of life.
    The new spatial structure has been formed by the processes of the change of regime, the events of nineties and the economic renewal based onforeign capital investments parallel with crisis phenomenon. The economic, political and social consequences of the transformation have significantly transformed spatial structure and increased disparities. New disparities have formed, which strengthened due to the formation of east-west slopes and local crisis zones. The outstanding improvement of the capital resulted in great regional development differences, which can be detected when examining regional distribution of gross domestic product. The Eastern part of the country was most heavily affected by the collapse of heavy industry and agricultural mass production based on the Eastern markets.
    It is of key importance for the region to strengthen regional competitiveness, which requires the application of consistent development-politics. Economic development is the most important, which can also draw the possibility of establishing welfare infrastructures. It is important to develop the processing industry, the supply networks and to ease the lack of capital it is also important to involve foreign capital. Developing agriculture plays an important role in transforming the structure of the economy. Since the conditions of the region, its traditions and long-term competitive advantages are favorable, thus can represent a greater ratio in the economy than the EU average. The modernisation of the agricultural sector can be promoted by supporting marketing, quality agricultural development and producer-retail cooperation. It is also highly important to promote development in transportation and informatics infrastructure and human resources.
    In the future – based on the strength of the region – it is necessary to achieve such a consistent regional development politics, which by validating the principles of regional politics, serves the interest of utilizing regional development supports most efficiently and prevents the irreversible underdevelopment of the region and promotes fast development.

  • Effect of facility location on haulage efficiency
    204-209
    Views:
    74

    In the 21st century, every economic sector must use the chances of evolution, technical and technological acquisitions, due to the level of competitiveness on the market. Such a sector as agriculture, where technology and the ideology of production are changing and adapting very slow to global expectations, by taking maximum advantage of opportunities, is a more central question. The greatest problems of Hungarian agriculture’s competitiveness are that this sector is very weak in capital and production costs make producers uncompetitive on the market. We can remedy this situation by using sources logically, purposefully and system approached. Logistics can provide the most useful assistance in such efforts.
    In agricultural logistics, there is a great deal of uncovered territory. The aim is to transplant methods that are working correctly in other sectors into the agricultural sector, while maintaining development. One of the most important areas is transport logistics and material movement. Methods of analyzing and planning transportation and material movement found in professional literature do not take into account the specific needs of agricultural production. My aim is to examine the effect of facility location in the running of an enterprise. Through the results, I make suggestions for modifying the currently used logistic method and suggest further methods of examination. The effect of agro-specific needs must be examined in carrying out innovations and making logistical planning methods reliable.

  • Regional Development Differences in Hungary and the Northern-Great Plain Region
    62-71
    Views:
    114

    The most important endeavour of European Union’s regional policy is to moderate disparities. An emphasised strategic objective of member states, based on the principle of solidarity, fairness and justice, is to develop regions and almost forty percent of the common budget is devoted to achieving this objective.
    Hungary, as a full EU member state, will get a new chance for underdeveloped regions, especially for the Eastern-Hungarian as well as the North Hungarian and North Plain Region.
    The differences in development among the regions are significantly influenced by the economic characteristics of the specific region, quality and quantity of human resources, accessability of the region and other factors influencing local quality of life beside natural conditions.
    The new spatial structure was formed by change of regime, processes of the nineties, primarily the economic renewal based on foreign capital investments and the crisis phenomena in parallel with these. The economic, political and social consequences of the transformation significantly changed spatial structure and increased disparities. New disparities formed which were further aggravated as a consequence due to the formation of the eastern-western slope and local crisis zones. As a result of the outstanding development of the capital, the long term differentiation of regional development differences can also be detected when examining the regional distribution of Hungarian gross domestic product. The collapse of heavy industry and agricultural mass production based on the eastern markets primarily affected the north-east counties in the eastern part of the country.
    Strengthening regional competitiveness is of key importance for the region, which requires the application of consistent development policy. The most important is economic development which, if it operates well, also infers the possibility of establishing welfare infrastructures. Drawing in external sources to ease the significant lack of capital is important for the processing industry and the development of supplier networks. Agricultural development also plays an important role in transforming economic structure, since the characteristics of the region, its traditions and long term competitive advantages are favourable, therefore it is going to represent a higher ratio within the economy than the EU average. The modernisation of the agricultural sector can be promoted by supporting market accession, quality agricultural production and stimulating producer-retailer cooperation. The development of transportation and informatics infrastructure as well as human resource development plays a significantly important role in the development of the region.
    In conclusion, the implementation of such a consistent regional development policy is required in the future, based on the strengths of the region, that serves the most efficient utilisation of regional development funds through the implementation of regional policy principles and prevents the irreversible decay of the region while promoting rapid development.

  • Concentration and Horizontal Integration in Milk Production
    60-66
    Views:
    87

    Agriculture in Hungary was characterised by the duality of large-scale farms (co-ops and state farms) and small-scale private enterprises until the beginning of the 1990s. Due to the privatisation and transformation of co-ops farm structure has significantly changed. The transformation of the structure is not considered to be a completed process. Level of concentration and integration on private farms are rising, new co-operation forms are appearing and new types of enterprises and producers’ groups are being formed.
    Concentration and integration have great importance in the dairy sector among agricultural enterprises. In recent years, milk production in the European Union has been characterised by concentration, leading to greater competitiveness. Today, most dairy producers belong to different kinds of producers’ organisations as concentrated demand may only be competitive by meeting concentrated supply. In Hungary, the problems of production have been the fragmentation and decrease of the average farm size while, at the same time, concentration has occurred in the processing sector. Establishing producers’ groups may be one of the solutions for improving competitiveness production.

  • The ain impacts of the Lisbon Strategy on tobacco growing
    80-87
    Views:
    65

    The Lisbon Strategy of the EU promises a more competitive Europe with more and better workplaces, in addition to sustainability.
    Tobacco production is one of the most controversial industries of the agricultural sphere in the European Union. This crop is a „leader” of the world’s economic growth, a promoter of globalisation and has been an economic channel between America and Europe for more than 500 years. It is also a motor of technical development, due to its inducing effect on profitability and work efficiency. The tax competition of the states and the increase in consumption have become such a self-inducing system in which the increase of production created an increasing number of jobs, especially in tobacco growing, where the replacement of manual labour was much slower than the increase of the demand for raw material. The fact that smoking is becoming general should be handled as a social demand, though its health risks cannot be denied. However, the extreme objection to smoking cannot be accepted, especially not when it evokes social strains and concludes that people smoke because of tobacco production, al though the real situation is the opposite: People smoke in Europe, so the tobacco should be grown here, as is in our economic interest.
    There is a contradiction between the strategic objectives and the roles of the industry which should be ceased urgently. Al thong aim is the creation of jobs, stopping tobacco growing could result in unexpected agro-social disadvantages. Rejection of the industry’s sustainability questions the realization of the keystones of the strategy. Competitiveness, sustainability and social cohesion should be implemented as a unit of the strategy also in tobacco growing.

  • Complex problem analysis of the Hungarian milk product chain
    43-47
    Views:
    90

    Hungarian dairy sector went through significant changes in past two decades. The most significant changes were caused by our accession to the European Union. In Hungary milk production remarkably declined after EU accession. The size of our dairy herd has been practically reducing since the political transformation, but increasing yields per cow could compensate it in some way and for some time. However, in recent years, increasing yield per cow came to a stop and in parallel, the number of cows declined further and faster. Low prices, high production costs and tightening quality requirements ousted several producers from the market in past years. Feeding cost represents the highest rate in cost structure of production, but animal health expenditures and various losses are also significant. There are undeniably competitive disadvantages in the level of organisation and labour productivity; however competitiveness already depends on cost effectiveness in the medium run. In Hungary concentration of the dairies is relatively strong in spite of the relative high number of corporations. The dairies compete with each other and with the export market for the raw material and the better exploitation of their capacities. Applied technology of the Hungarian dairies lags behind the Western-European competitors’; in addition they have handicaps in efficiency and product innovation. Presence of chain of stores being dominant in sale of milk products does also not favour in all respects to the position of the dairies. The aforementioned retail chains are namely consumer-centric, engage in price follower conduct and weaken the position of the dairies with their private label products. As a result of increasing import of milk and milk products Hungary became a net importer in recent years. Today, disposable income still essentially determines the consumption habits of price-sensitive consumers. Loyalty for Hungarian products is not typical, consumers are open for import products being preferred by retail chains. In addition Hungarian milk and milk product consumption is about half of the Union average and it is far behind the level being necessary for healthy eating. In Hungary lack of competitiveness and vertical integration relationships and backwardness are revealing among the dairy farmers and the dairies, while chain of stores are in unprecedented “monopolistic situation”; the whole sector can be characterised by defencelessness. 

  • Regional strategies serving competitiveness
    97-101
    Views:
    105

    In my study titled “Regional strategies serving competitiveness”, I examine the regional strategies whose development and implementation in practice play a determinant role in the medium- and long run economic and social development of the given region. The study primarily focuses on the infrastructural basic investments that are essential from the aspect of creating a knowledge-based information society. The study also deals with a stakeholder analysis used by investors in order to focus on the quality of state administration and institution system.

  • Evaluation of Dairy Farms’ Competitiveness
    256-260
    Views:
    32

    The volume of milk production in the European Union is limited by quotas, thus dairy farms in Hungary can expand their production mostly at the others’ expenses after joining. In this way issues of arrangements arise relating to defining competitiveness of the already existing farms and not to farming new ones. The aims of my research is to find answers for dairy farms in the County of Hajdu-Bihar, depending on their arrangement (herd size, keeping technology, arable for forage production, handling manure, mechanisation, technician state of equipment) what possibilities they will have among the EU farmers.

  • Investment funding programs on dairy farms in Hajdú-Bihar County
    11-16
    Views:
    165

    The dairy farming sector needs constant modernization of its buildings, machines and technology in order to maintain its competitiveness and productivity. For the greater scale investments, these companies try to apply for state funds in addition to their own financial sources. Therefore, the investment support system plays a great role by improving the competitiveness and modernity of these farms. In the last 10 years, 7 funding programs were available for dairy farms. In this research, 25 dairy farms were interviewed in Hajdú-Bihar County. The examined farms cover more than 50% of the milk production in Hajdú-Bihar County. The survey questions focused on the investment funding program use of farms between 2007 and 2017 and renewable energy investments including all programs. The results show how many tenders were submitted, how many were successfully evaluated and completed. All farms had at least two successfully evaluated projects. A correlation was found between completed projects by farm size and completed projects. The connection of the modernity index of dairy farms and the completed projects was also shown.

  • Analyzing the Competitiveness of Balmazujvaros on the Basis of a SWOT-Analysis, Emphasizing Tourism
    262-271
    Views:
    99

    My study examined the competitiveness of Balmazujvaros, in regard to tourism. The town is situated in the Northern Great Plain region, in Hajdu-Bihar county, 22 km from Debrecen, together with Egyek, Hortobagy and Tiszacsege joined the statistical subregion of Balmazujvaros. Comparing with the neighbouring settlements, it has similar geographical features and posesses thermal water that was determined to be medicinal, which is a feature of the region. Balmazujvaros as a typical country town as it has a dominant agricultural character. It gained town status in 1989. Part of the town is situated in the National Park of Hortobagy.
    The first part of my study is to determine the number of rival settlements from the viewpoint of tourism. I will analyze the results of a questionnaire given to tourists in Balmazujvaros between June 15 August 31 2003, and introduce the primary results. The SWOT analysis will show the primary and secondary information and the examination of the results.
    If we take into account the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of this town, we can make the following conclusion: tourism is an opportunity with a well-developed infrastructure, a third sector, subsidies and improved local interest. A sound and well-defined marketing strategy is essential for Balmazujvaros, in order to overwhelm its strong rivals

  • Effect of using antioxidants as feed additives in the diet of dairy cows on the vitamin E and lycopene content of milk
    69-72
    Views:
    99

    In 2007, the aim of an Ányos Jedlik program and call for tenders was to support application-oriented, strategic research and development projects, which can increase the competitiveness of the Hungarian economy. In the framework of our project, we intended to examine whether non-protected antioxidants – in this case: vitamin E and lycopene – used as feed-additives can increase the antioxidant content of milk. The milk with an
    increased level of vitamin E and lycopene content can be used for producing functional foods which will represent competitive products on the current market of milk products. Our results show that the use of vitamin E as feed-additive can significantly increase the amount of vitamin E in the milk. The use of lycopene as feedadditive also gave good results. At the beginning of the experiment, the lycopene content of the milk was below the detection limit, while in the post-feeding milk samples the lycopene became detectable. Based on our results, we are of the opinion that further experiments and analyses are needed regarding the quality of food of animal origin and animal health.

  • Vegetable production based on waste heat in closed greenhouses considering economic usage and competitiveness of the European Union
    41-44
    Views:
    114

    The study investigates two professional fields; the questions of vegetable production in greenhouses, the necessary steam supply and heat regulations. The actuality of this investigation is provided by the planning of a combined cycle power plant of 2400 MW in Hungary. According to the plans the steam developing by generating electricity in the power plant can be used to intensify the vegetable production. In my current study I present the experiences and results gathered as member of the research and development team led by Mr. Dr. Sinórós-Szabó.

  • Farms in the system of European supportpolicy
    79-83
    Views:
    73

    Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) has been having a great past, it is over numerous direction and structure changes in the last half century. After the Treaty of Rome, the harmonization of he agricultural structure and the production of Member States has been launched, during which the economic changes in the world and in Europe were continuously being kept track of. By using common experience, they strived to develop an agricultural sector that supplies the Member States of the Community with food, while the competitiveness and living circumstances of family farms are being improved. The general directions outlined in Stresa in 1958 were significantly redrawn owing to the transformed market conditions and EU accessions. The subsidization of family farms and the improvement of their profitability are having a stressed importance nowadays, too. Our country, as the fully qualified member of the European Union tries to meet its obligations undertaken in the accession treaty and therefore to develop an agricultural sector carrying out diversified agricultural production with a healthy age structure. The aim of the study is to specifically overview the issue of common agricultural policy by stressing the main development points and to introduce the Hungarian conditions of family farms. Besides, there will be an evaluation of the research works examining the income conditions of family farms in the North Great Plain region.

  • Social justice as a factor in socio-economic preconditions effective process of economic transformation Ukraine
    63-64
    Views:
    105

    The article deals with social justice as the main factor of social and economic prerequisites for effective transformation of the economy of Ukraine and basic ways of overcoming injustice in the social sphere of life.

  • Wine market trends in the EU and Hungary
    101-105
    Views:
    81

    Traditions of the Hungarian grape and wine sector go back centuries. However, although this sector is proud of its rich traditions, it has gone through several shocks. Having joined the EU, Hungary has become a part of the integrated internal market. The commercial obstacles and difficulties among EU-members and Hungary have officially been removed. At the same time, within the Common Agricultural Policy, the wine market has been organised at community level by EU-members. There is no possibility for the sector to access any kind of direct supports from the Hungarian budget, unless such activity is definitely allowed by community directions or unless Hungary were authorized in the framework of a supplementary procedure. After joining the EU, the customs-protection - which aim was to protect the EU-market against the third countries - reduced, so wine producers from overseas countries emerged with their competitive wine prices in the home market and also became competitors of Hungarian wine producers who have been working under low technically equipped conditions. In order to increase the competitiveness of Hungarian wines, it is essential to improve the machinery of producers and to improve the equipment of winecellars. Finally, it is also vital that Hungarian wine producers develop a well-constructed marketing policy.

  • Objectives of the EU in the field of biomass use and utilisation
    9-12
    Views:
    106

    The energy independence very important for the European Union, while simultaneously sparing the natural environment in order to increase the use of renewable energy sources . A further development is the key issue of how renewable energy sources available can be better utilized to improve the efficiency of economic competitiveness. EU renewable energy policy is determined by five principles : The first is the environment, including the carbon dioxide and other pollutants to reduce emissions . The second increase energy security and at the same time reducing dependence on imports. The third aspect of local and regional development. With this realignment of economic and social development levels of different areas they want to achieve. This point is closely related to rural development and create new jobs . The transformation of the agricultural structure is an important aspect , which is that they can reduce the overproduction of food by providing alternative land use options , such as the cultivation of energy crops.

  • Validation of the competence profile of agri-environmental engineering bachelor course
    63-71
    Views:
    149

    As member of the European Union, the development if the Hungarian agriculture is determined by the Common Agricultural Policy. After the reform of the Common Agricultural Policy in 2003, the environmental protection has got a crucial function. The constant changing role of agriculture has reacted students in higher education. For firms connected to agriculture, human resource management based on competency has an important role in custody of competitiveness. One of the most important goals of firms is to supply the demands of their economic partners. To make it successfully, highly qualified human resource is required. The quality of human resource is determined not only by its qualification, language skills, professional experience, and practise, but extant competencies that can also be developed. To choose the expectant employee, it is not enough for them to have intelligence and proficiency; it is also decisive to examine their particular competencies. All of these will define the employee’s
    achievement that will definitely contribute to the success of the enterprise. Basically, closer cooperation is needed between higher education institutions and employers to achieve this goal. At the same time, the higher education institutions can revise their training systems considering the actual requirements of labour market, and accordingly, they can form syllabus in a way to train auspicious experts. In this article examination of the requirements of labour market for graduates from agri-environmental engineering bachelor course is presented.

  • Decreasing Energy and Water Use in the Meat Industry
    24-28
    Views:
    61

    The technology supervisions are needed from time to time in order to involve the new research results, experience, new technologies and equipments organising principles into the production and to make it cheaper and with less expenditure to increase the profitability and competitiveness. In the course of our investigation we aimed the analysis of the traditional technologies and improving of it. In this article we detail the heat treatment curing process. We applied the principles of experimental design for the determination the main influencing parameters in the processes. Then we made simulations and modelling in seeking for the environmentally better technology programs. We developed a method for measuring the temperature development of products with small diameter using the similarity theory in unit operation. In the course of the analysis of the heat treatment processes we could state that the heat treatment time can be reduced significantly by decreasing the size of the product and choosing the right ratios among the surface heat transfer intensity, ambient temperature and involving the lethality obtained during the cooling phase. The total sparing were about 10-20%. We solved the problem associated with the sensor placement error using a plastic material (metamid). We establish a curve between the real product temperature and plastic rod temperature by which the monitoring of the process became more accurate. We determine the size modification for different product sizes. In case of curing we observed very similar phenomena. For the determination of the diffusion coefficient we adopted the Ball-method not using in this field till today. We could reduce the excess saltiness and loss of NaCl with about 5%.

  • External governance and economic patriotism in European policies
    35-39
    Views:
    101

    The concept of external governance tries to define the expanding scope of EU rules beyond EU borders. This article presents the theoretical foundations of the concept, differentiating the various institutional modes according to which external governance may take place. Due to the financial and economic crisis the European Union is forced to strengthen its competitiveness opposite to cohesion. In the second part of the study I present the five mechanisms by which the European Union may foster its position in the global competition. The five mechanisms are as follows: extension of the political space of the EU, expansion of the regulation mechanisms of the EU, active coaching of international organisations, territorial extension of the EU’s influence, division of the costs of globalization. After that I deal with the different forms of economic patriotism. Economic patriotism plays crucial role in maintaining the performance and strengthening the position of some preferred domestic industries, ‘national champions’. Tools of economic patriotism differ due to ideological affinities.

  • Additional information for the interpretation of the practice of rural development in the light of the corporate relations of the Agricultural Centre, University of Debrecen in the North-Great Plain Region
    65-69
    Views:
    60

    In the spirit of the Lisbon strategy, the European Union has set out the primary aims of innovation development and competitiveness. A potential method to reach these aims is to enhance the relation between science and practice and to apply scientific results. This is the case at the Agricultural Centre of the University of Debrecen as well, since the tighter and looser cooperations of the institution provide a scientific structure, which is now a significant prerequisite for Hungarian agro-innovation, primarily for rural development processes in the North Great Plain Region. The present study, based mostly on empirical findings, strives to analyze the field of activities in relation to rural development performed by the Agricultural Centre, University of Debrecen.