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Examination of microsatellite markers of Dorper sheep breed
57-61Views:582Number of not woolly and molty sheep exceeds 60 million throughout the world. Their numbers and their importance is growing, still they have appeared in the past two decades all over in North-America, Australia, New-Zealand and also in Europe. The South African Dorper has been a pioneer among them in Hungary. It was introduced in 2006 in the country. The Dorper sheep is the second largest breed in South Africa, which was developed from the crossing of Dorset Horn and the Blackhead Persian. The aim of the EU Member States in terms of this specific breed is increasing the small populations, improving the productive qualities, in addition to this avoiding inbreeding. However, finding appropriate breeding stock is difficult due to the small size of available populations and also to the suspected common of origin. With the help of various molecular genetic methods we could get a total view of the genetic background of these flocks. Nowadays the most commonly known and used genetic markers are microsatellites, because their applications give fast, accurate and easily reproducible results. There is no specific descriptive information on the genetic background of Dorper populations in the various EU countries , also regarding diversity between populations. Therefore in our work we want to optimize the conditions of applicability of 31 selected microsatellite reactions as a first step of mapping the entire genetic background of the different EU Dorper populations.
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Quality management and traceability in crop production
273-277Views:478Today, food safety and quality is an everyday issue. Scandals in the food industry drew attention to the role and responsibility of food producers in the food chain. The European Union has set up a new integrated approach towards food safety, to which Hungary as an EU member and export-oriented country has also joined. The new “from farm to fork” principle states that food and feed production cannot be handled separately, as only feed produced from good quality raw materials can ensure safe food products. Another important issue is the traceability of products, allowing for the localization and recall of the defected item. In Hungary, there have been different documentation systems for tracking and tracing products, such as the land register in crop production, animal register in the livestock sector and hygiene registers in the food industry. In order to meet EU requirements, there is a growing number of initiatives to include primary production in the scope of food safety standards. The study introduces and compares the various management systems used in crop production.
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The European Research Area: in quest of the Lisbon goals
73-79Views:190strong educational and scientific knowledge basie is one of Europe's traditional key assets that has made it possible for our continent to become world class in several research fields. Despite these great achievements, the position of the European research and technological development (RTD) potential is currently being challenged by a rapidly changing global competition, including the two main rivals, the US and Japan. The European Union (EU) is behind these countries as regards research and innovation output. Moreover, European research is faced with the
implications of globalisation of markets and industries, digitalisation and new technologies, as well as a need to address societal issues such as an ageing population or climate change.
At the same time, the European Union (EU) is facing the uneven distribution of RTD capacities and excellence within its own borders, especially the EU12 countries are lagging behind in this
respect.
In order to meet this twofold challenge the EU has to step up its efforts for the creation of a legitimate "European Research Area" that will make the EU more competitive on the international scene, and also encourage the less developed EU member states to invest more and better into research and innovation. -
The European Union and competitiveness
15-19Views:246I 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.
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Global and national economic importance of pig meat production
13-20Views:572The pork production has changed significant in recent decades. Pig production fell significantly due to the need to adapt to new animal welfare rules in the sector. Furthermore, change in the meat consumption habit had also a negative effect on pig meat production. Hungarian pig sector and meat industry are in a difficult situation. Due to the high feed prices, the average production cost of pig farming has often exceeded the producer prices in recent years, therefore an increase of pig population could not be realised yet. Pig market is characterised by cyclical fluctuations of supply and prices, furthermore the decreasing producer price occurred parallel with increasing feed prices.
Technology is also a critical fact in the Hungarian pig sector because there is a huge gap in the level of technology compared to that of competitive member states. With the development of production methods the efficiency of pork meat production can be improved in an environmentally friendly way. -
Spatial environment analisys of the bioenergy production and utilization
235-240Views:211The backwardness of the rural areas compared to the cities poses a problem all over Europe. Rural development and the reduction of differences between the development levels of the regions have expressed roles among the programs of the European Union. Member States are even entitled to subsidisation, they just need to manage subsidies economically. In Hungary, a relatively small amount of the population lives in the capital, more than 80% of Hungarians live in rural cities or villages. The opposition between the countryside and the cities is rather intensified and the symbiotic correlation would need to be restored. Many people migrate from the countryside, especially youngsters, as they have no opportunities to find any job. This phenomenon poses big risks because getting a job is usually difficult everywhere and because fitting into a new environment always involves a lot of difficulties. Also from the aspect of the national economy, migration from the rural areas to the cities is a problem. The state budget will face significant excess costs if someone moves from a village to the city. It could cause unpredictable consequences if people leave the villages, as the maintenance and development of the village living space will face a hopeless situation.
Non-renewable energies are restricted and they will not be accessible after reaching a certain limit. People’s everyday activities and the functioning of the economy presupposes the availabilty of the necessary amount of energy. In the future, solution that provide the longterm stability of energy for the world will become increasingly necessary. There is a huge potential in bioenergy, more specifically in biomass. The building of biomass plants and putting them into operation creates jobs in the rural spatial environments. A locally available resource that can help in creating the energy safety of the country and the reduction of the dependence on import. The production of energy crops or the crops whose purpose of use is energy could help in strengthening the multifunctional character of agriculture and it can represent a source of income for those living off of agriculture under the current uncertain conditions. -
Present situation and future prospects for Hungarian fruit and vegetable sector
31-38Views:175Changes in people’s lifestyles and the emergence of nutritional science have created favorable opportunities for a boom in fruit and vegetable consumption, which have been fully exploited by the adaptive fruit producer and exporter countries. Unfortunately, Hungary is not one of these countries. Affected by a number of uncertainty factors, the Hungarian fruit and vegetable sector has fallen behind international trends, seeking opportunities for survival (Erdész, 2007).
The impacts of the country’s accession to the EU have been more adverse than expected. While no administrative measures are used to control production and the increasing competition and import have put Hungarian producers to a loosing position. The cooperation producers, the well-organized work of professionals and the coordinated activity of producers marketing organizations may resolved some of the problems affecting the sector.
The fruit and vegetable sector can also anticipate significant changes during the new seven-years budget period of the CAP reform.
With the new drat reform of the sector, the European Commission intends to simplify the common organization of the fruit and vegetable market, improve competitiveness, increase market orientation, promote fruit and vegetable consumption and to continue the environmental efforts.
Hungary has had great expectations concerning the reform of market regulation, but the Commission proposal didn’t bear out the expectations, because the new proposal includes insignificant changes in important issues and fails to provide sufficient additional resources for the catching up of he new member states. -
Fishes protected of Natura 2000 system in Slovakia
9-12Views:143The timely and effective establishment of Natura 2000 network is one of the greatest environmental challenges for the new Member States of the European Union. Slovak Republic is facing this challenge now. By the June 2005, the Government in our country must prepare a list of sites to be included in the Natura network, according to the criteria set up in the Habitat Directive. Natura 2000 sites, according to the specificEUDirectivesconsistofSpecialAreasofConservation(SACs),andSpecialProtectionAreas(SPAs).TheSPAsandtheSACs, the latter selected as Sites of Community Importance (SCIs), will be incorporated into the Natura 2000 network. The problems of proclaiming the system of protected areas of European importance for the Natura 2000 have been one of the major topics of the ichthyological activities in our country in recent years.
For 3 lampreys and 20 fishspeciestheterritoryofpotentialsiteofcommunityinterest(pSCI)hasbeenlimitedandproposed.Theselection of localities and examinations of population state in individual species of fishespresentedintheAnnex(II.,IVandV.)totheCouncilDirective No. 92/43/EEC were carried out in 2003/2004. In total 179 pSCI localities for fishandlampreysinthealpinebiogeographicregion (83) and in the pannonian biogeographic region (96) pSCI in the Slovak republic were selected and limited. The number of pSCI localities selected for individual species is different regards to their distribution within the river net of Slovakia. For example, for species of general distribution, 30 localities pSCI (Misgurnus fossilis, Rhodeus sericeus, Gobio albipinnatus, Barbus barbus) or 35 localities pSCI (Cobitis elongatoides, Barbus peloponnesius), have been proposed, on the contrary, in several species of exclusive distribution as Lampetra planeri - 8, Gobio uranoscopus - 9 and Zingel zingel -12 localities.
The pSCI territory for individual species of the ichthyofauna presented here represents the firststageintheprocessofcreatingtheprotected territory system of European interest Natura 2000 in the territory of the Slovakia for this group of aquatic vertebrates. The list of proposal sites will have to be submitted to the European Commission by the date of Accession. -
The significance of ecolabels in tourism
118-124Views:171More than one hundred types of ecolabels have been introduced worldwide since the 1980s. These voluntary certifications may play a prominent role in achieving sustainable tourism as, on the one hand, they may encourage companies to behave responsibly, and on the other, they may contribute to increasing tourists’ awareness in their choice. Considering that there are many small and medium-sized companies working on the tourism market, developing voluntary certification systems is highly encouraged in the member states of the European Union.
At the same time, there are significant differences among the various ecolabels concerning their content, qualitative criteria, and requirements, which makes it difficult for them to gain acceptance on the tourism market. It is worth mentioning that the sets of criteria belonging to the ecolabels usually do not involve indicators related to the social and cultural impacts of tourism.
In my paper I review the main characteristics of voluntary certifications with special emphasis on the players in tourism ecolabels, furthermore I discuss their advantages and some of the arising problems as well. -
Cohesion and competitiveness of the European Union at strategic level
29-33Views:201After 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.
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Agricultural aspects in river basin management plans
149-152Views:185In the European Region agriculture is the second largest water user after power industry cooling water use. As part of the implementation of Water Framework Directive EU Member States prepared their river basin management plans by the end of 2009 or first half of 2010, In these plans impacts of agriculture on water bodies have received attention. The detailed information elaborated in the plans by countries and river basin districts were uploaded into the WFD section of the WISE system. This database provides opportunity for multi-criteria analysis for different water types. The paper discusses the effects of agriculture on hydromorphological pressures and impacts affecting surface water bodies. It was pointed out that among the pressures affecting European surface water bodies the hydromorphological and diffuse pressures represent the highest ratios (Figure 1). Within the hydromorphological pressures affecting classified surface water bodies the ratio of pressures related to agricultural activities is low,
it does not exceed 1% at European level. In case of Hungary the agriculture related river management pressures effect about 80% of the surface water bodies, which is much higher than the corresponding European average. The agricultural water abstractions affect about 10% of the Hungarian surface water bodies (Figures 2 and 3). The river and lake water bodies are impacted in significant ratio by nutrient enrichments and organic material enrichments, while in case of river water bodies the impact of organic material enrichments is also significant (Figures 4 and 5).