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Hungary’s employment policy from the point of view joining the European Union
189-197Views:167What is a place of work? Is it a commitment to work, or continuous pressure under work, or hunting for income? This article is a brief review about the main milestones of the employment history of the European Union and Hungary. In 1989, the Social Charta about the social principles of employee was issued. In 1997 the employment policy became the part of the acquis communautaire. Finally, in 1998, the European
Employment Strategy was developed, which contains the community employment guidelines. In the year of millennium, the new long term concept of the EU, the Lisbon Strategy was approved. In this document the EU was targeted as the most dynamic and competitive knowledge-based economy in the World till 2010. The Tens joint to the EU in 2004, and a bit later it became clear, that the EU is light-armed against some of the world economy challenges. As a consequence, many objectives of the Strategy could not be reached. Recently member states of the EU have to develop the national action plan for employment year by year. The hungarian plans were developed as well, but the wrong labour market’s parameters haven’t been changed since 2004. -
Analysis of the Hungarian National Action Plan for Employment in the Framework of RuralJobs International Project
77-86Views:169Employment and creation of new jobs getting more and more attention both on national and on European level. The examination of this topic is especially important in rural areas of
Europe. There were several European and national researches dealing with this question, and there are new upcoming works which try to find solutions for citizents to decrease unemployment in rural areas. The RuralJobs, EU Framework 7. project presented in the paper is one of these researches. After a short introduction of RuralJobs and the task under workpackage two of the research, which analysis strategies, policies and programmes from the aspect of rural jobs, one of the documents reviewed under this task, the Hungarian National Action Plan for Employment is presented, in line with the most important stages of the EU’s
employment policy. -
Relationship of the employment policy with rural development in the European Union
27-36Views:188Employment policy has won primary attention both at national and EU levels for the past decade. Managing its problems has become one of the major social economic and political challenges. One of the problems is the aging of the continent’s population, which is in close relation with the slow increasing or decreasing economic trends.
Comparing the EU’s unemployment, employment and labour productivity rates to those of ten years earlier a positive tendency can be traced. On of the other hand compared with the USA, Japan or the average of OECD countries the Community has still not been able to reduce its several decades lasting leeway. Difficulties of labour management are much more striking in rural territories than in urban districts. Not even the second pillar of the Common Agricultural Policy: the rural development has been successful in managing the employment of the labour superseded
from the primer sector so far, which is significantly reflected in the unfavourable indicators of labour management and unemployment. -
Theoretical schools on employment and workforce
25-33Views:173In the civil economics, like in the case of any other socialeconomic issues, there are two coexistent theories concerning employment. On one hand we have the classical-neo-classical
school based on Adam Smith’s works. On the other hand we have the teachings based on John Maynard Keynes’ views. All the later hypotheses are based on these two trends.
Monetarism, which was invented at the beginning of the 20th century, mixes certain elements of both basic theories. Those who represent monetarism agree on rejecting the economy policy
means which affect the processes of the workforce market, while they consider these above mentioned means applicable to regulate certain processes. By the end of the 1970s the neo-classical macro-economics had developed, which completely refuses these approaches. A decade later the neo-Keynesian macro-economics developed. Its hypotheses regarding especially employment and unemployment lead to some of the employment issues of globalism, which is one of the most influential phenomena of present time. -
The impact of employment and income circumstances on the development of regions
15-19Views:587The economic condition of an area is fundamentally determined by the extent of employement, as well as the size and composition of its active population. No sustainable economic growth is possible without the necessary amount of employees with the proper skills.
As regards the proportion of employees, i.e. economically active people is significanlty lower in Hungary than not only in Western Europe, but also countries which joined the EU recently. One of the reasons for this fact is the low amount of part-time employment and the other is the phenomenon that the number of agricultural employees – who had a significant role – greatly decreased in the county.
The employment level of the population in the county is nearly identical as that of the North Great Plain region and it is lower than the country average. The activity proportion, i.e. the joint proportion of employees and unemployed people in the population between 15–74 years of age is 3 percentages lower than the country average. The proportion of unemployed people greatly varies depending on the small regions of the county. The proportion of registered unemployed people in the population of active age is the lowest in Debrecen and the highest in the Hajdúhadház small region. The unemployment of career-starters is a further problem to deal with.
The composition of employees in the county is different than the country average. When compared in terms of different economic sectors, it can be observed that agriculture, game management, forestry and fishery are more significant than the country average. Of the provider sectors, the proportion of financial activity, real estate matters and economic services is lower, while that of accommodation services and hospitality is higher than the country average.
There are regional differences similar to unemployment in terms of the income size which is the basis of personal income tax per taxpayer.
The income level in the North Great Plain region is lower than the country average mainly in terms of income paid for work, where this difference is 23%, while it is only 5% in the case of social income. Altogether, the income and expenditure data of the North Great Plain region are not favourable. -
The correlation of foreign language proficiency, employment and regional competitiveness in the North Great Plain Region of Hungary
74-82Views:133Employment 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.
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Survey on energetic short rotation forestry systems – Possibilities of spatial development and job creation
7-11Views:173Both the European and the Hungarian rural areas suffer multi dimensional problems. Beside infrastructural under development the most important difficulty is employment. Unemployment is significant in the rural areas, while other structural characteristics like education, profession, work circumstances and seasonality worsen this unfavourable situation. It can be stated that the challenge with the highest priority in rural and spatial
development is to create jobs and to strengthen local employment. The authors examine the job generating possibilities of energetic biomass of agricultural origin in a structural point of view. The aim is to develop spatial biomass product line models that permanently support the raise of employment by utilizing the possibilities of the European Union support policy and the popularity of this branch. -
Settlement network, demographic circumstances, healthcare, social service and educations in Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg county
105-113Views:585Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg county shares its borders with three countries: Romania, Ukraine and Slovakia. The county is part of the North Great Plain Region, it is the third largest county of Hungary in terms of its population. The peripheric geographical location of the county gained importance by the EU accession, as the county represents a significant part of the eastern border of the EU.
Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg county is one of the counties of the Great Plain with significant population in the outlying areas, out of the six counties of the Great Plain the population of outlying areas is the lowest in the county, its ratio has been significantly reducing in the past decades. In the six counties in 1990 the population of the outlying areas represented 22.3% of the total population, whereas in Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg county the ratio was 13.6%. The ratio has dropped to 6.2% and 4.1% respectively.
The major aim of economic development is the improvement of the living conditions of the population, first and foremost by increasing family incomes. There are two main determining factors of family income level: employment ratio and the sectoral structure of employment.
Between 1992–2010 the number of employees in the financial sector decreased from 89 000 to 75 000, whereas the number of employees in the non-financial sector grew dynamically from 40 000 to 65 000. Structural change was significant. In the non-financial sector the proportion of the two main employment fields (education and healthcare) swapped. The number of employees in the education sector decreased from 16 000 to 14 000, while the number of employees in the health and social care sector grew from 11 000 to 22 000.
On the basis of statistics the number of kindergarten and primary school children reduced in the given period, while the number of secondary school aged children increased. In 1999 the number of secondary school children was 1/5th compared to the number of primary school children, whereas in 2010 their number almost reached 1/2. The student number in higher education doubled, which is a favorable phenomenon, though its structural changes raise some problems. The lack of technical trainings hinders exigent industrial development.
Since 1990 the education level of the population has significantly improved, the number and proportion of secondary school students and university graduates have risen much more dynamically than in other regions of the country. In the county the proportion of secondary school students increased 63% more than the national average, while in the case of university graduates the county passed the average national growth by more than 54%. Due to the effect of structural changes the proportion of university graduates in the corresponding age group improved, its backwardness compared to the national average has ameliorated from 34% to 29%, in the group of secondary school graduates the disadvantage has moderated from 26% to 21%. The computer and internet supply, as well as the number of teachers and students enrolled in secondary education institutions have developed dynamically in the county. Their growth has much excelled the national average.
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Labour productivity in the Hungarian agriculture
119-128Views:291This paper presents the situation of the agricultural labour employment and evaluates the agricultural labour productivity in Hungary. Since Hungary’s EU accession, the share of agricultural employment in the total employed population has been stabilized at around 5% in the country. Due to low wages, low profit and low prestige, agricultural jobs are not attractive. The gross and net labour productivity gap between Hungary and the EU have been significant since the EU accession. The agricultural labour productivity of the Hungarian regions also shows a different picture. The labour productivity influences the cost, profitability and competitiveness of products. The advantage of the cheap labour force in Hungary’s agriculture significantly decreased due to low labour productivity. There are several opportunities to increase the agricultural labour productivity such as the increase of labour force qualification, moving toward producing higher value added agri-food products, rejuvenation of population in agriculture and the improvement of the conditions of financing agriculture.
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Possible explanations for the transformation of the Northern Great Plain Region's labour market
69-78Views:157As a result of the processes of hungarian economy and society the increase in territorial differences is noticeable in the last few days. The changes in society's status, the rate of increase and the level of development can be tracked for example in the diverse variation of labour market. In my study I would like to demonstrate the typical processes of labour market based on the time scale between 2000-2007, and I also want to reveal the root causes of the change in unemployment rate. The source of data is a regular, representative labour-survey by the Hungarian Central
Statistical Office based on interviewing people, as well as registration on place-hunters by the Employment and Social Office together with the summary of governmental subsidy. I targeted the age-groups between 15-74 years in my analysis, but the results are not modified by the over 65 years old population because of their small economical importance. I define the status of labour market by markers among others like economical activity, employment rate, unemployment rate, and I also consider the change in the amount of registered place-hunters in the period examined. My aim is to determine the responsible coefficients of the change in unemployment rate. -
A study of social and economic influences of universities in the Derecske-Létavértes subregion
153-157Views:207Businesses operating in the region – adopting to local conditions – mostly pursue agricultural activities. Their R+D activity is rather moderate and largely focuses on development, moreover, the range of innovative businesses is relatively significant, which businesses – before long – will become potential partners for institutions of higher education (especially for Debrecen University).
Social impacts of universities are notable on the person’s status in the labour market. Our study of the Derecske-Létavértes region shows that those with a university degree have an advantageous position in the labour market, compared to the sample of youth aged between 16 and 35. Knowledge obtained at college and other skills greatly help the young to find employment.
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Employment trends in the Northern Great Plain’s Region
109-111Views:195Hungary can be divided into 7 regions, of which I am writing about the Northern Great Plain Region in this article. The Northern Great Plain consists of the counties Hajdú-Bihar, Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok, and Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg. There are 389 settlements in the region, which can be considered rather few. The population of the region is nearly 1.5 million, which is nearly 15% of the total population. This region is one of the most disadvantageous regions in Hungary, with its economic indicators ranking the lowest of all regions. Nevertheless, as regarding education and agriculture, the region is considered to be a prominent area.
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The change of youth unemployment based on the concept of precariat
105-108Views:207Youth unemployment is a hot potato issue worldwide, including Hungary and its reduction is a major focal point in every country. Today's labour market is characterized by uncertainties and unpredictability while flexibility, project-related employment are emphasized, which pose different expectations on employees than before. This phenomenon is included in the concept of precariat. In the present study the labour market status, future potentials and options of youths in the Derecske district of Hungary are described.
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Interpretation of rurality and the situation of land use in Hungary
79-85Views:460The summarizing data collection of our study has been carried out in the scope of the FP7-REGPOT-2010-1 ’UD_AGR_REPO’ project as a part of the cooperation with the University of Lincoln. The University of Lincoln is an important partner of the project, the knowledge transfer activities that have been carried jointly with them are multilateral. One of the most important cooperation areas is the analysis of rural areas, rurality itself, determination of breakout points, exploration of alternative income sources, diversification possibilities. Some part of the work of the University of Lincoln on the field of rural development is based on the assessment and documentation global similarities and differences of rural areas. Present study also contributes to that work, it has been prepared on the request of the University of Lincoln with the aim of providing insight into the special political and economic changes/processes that took place in Hungary, and through them into the structure and operation of the unique Hungarian rural areas.
The study first positions the definition of rurality and rural areas into context on the basis of official EU and Hungarian legal classification. Then it covers the important agricultural nature of Hungary, which significantly determines the possibilities and properties of Hungarian rural areas. The further description of rural areas is completed by some historical summary, the introduction of ownership changes, detailed description of employment and income conditions and finally by the listing of breakout points of rural areas as a conclusion.
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Labour market characteristics of Ukrainian employees with special regard to the North Great Plain region
67-72Views:234National Employment Public Foundation founded our research to examine the employment characteristics and job market importance of Ukrainian citizens in Hungary in 2008. As the means of our investigation we analysed available statistical data and conducted a survey. Ukrainian citizens working in Hungary with valid work permit were questioned. 226 people were in the sample.
Hungarian job market processes were not significantly affected by the officially employed Ukrainian citizens because their number was rather small in relation to the number of registered unemployed people and in relation to the available job positions. It can be stated that Ukrainian citizens mainly work in positions where high specialised knowledge is not a requirement.
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Changes in the Hungarian law and in the classification system regarding to ’people living with disabilities’ between 2008 and 2013
43-55Views:240Nowadays employment is a hot topic in Hungary. The rate of inactive people on the labour market is very high. Many kinds of supplies are provided by the State for example for the group “people living with disabilities”. It is very difficult to provide job for these people after their rehabilitation. Statistical figures show, that the highest ratio of “people living with disabilities” can be found in the North Great Plain Region of Hungary (30 per cent of the total number of “people living with disabilities”).
The employment of these people means extra costs for enterprises. At the same time the complete accessibility of workplaces is still not realized in many cases in Hungary yet. Currently only a few enterprises are specialized to employ people living with disabilities in the North Great Plain Region. Unfortunately most of the enterprises don’t want to employ them. New workplaces for these people should be created by the utilisation of European Union and national available sources in order to integrate them into the job’s world in long run. I represent the changes in the law and in the classification system in this area.
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Marginalisation and Multifunctional Land Use in Hungary
50-61Views:189Our study prepared as a brief version of National Report in the frame of EUROLAN Programme. We deal with the interpretation of some definitions (marginalisation of land use, multifunctionality of land use, marginalisation of agriculture, multifunctionality of agriculture), with sorting and reviewing indicators of marginalisation and finally with the analysis of functions of land use. We suggested a dynamic and a static approach of marginalisation. We can explore the dynamic process by time series and the static (regional) one by cross-section analyses.
It is very hard to explain the perspective of the future of marginalisation of land and of agriculture in Hungary. The process of marginalisation seems faster in the agriculture in the coming years, but it depends on the utilisation of new possibilities given by the EU financial resources and by the Common Market. At this moment agriculture seems one of the big losers of the accession.
In the long term we should face considerable challenges in the land use. It is necessary to take into account that there is a supply market of foods and traditional fibre production world-wide. There are limited possibilities to produce and to market for example biodiesel (fuel), bioethanol, or maybe biogas. Thus the environment and landscape preservation becomes more and more real land use alternatives.
The environmental interpretation of the multifunctionality of land use: activities (functions) of environmental preservation and nature conservation in a certain area, which aim to preserve natural resources by the existing socio-economic conditions.
Preservation of rural landscapes is the task mainly for land-users, who can be commanded by legal means and can be encouraged by economic measures to carry out the above activity. In the recent past measures of „command and control” type regulation were predominant, however nowadays, especially in the developed countries, the role of economic incentives increases.
As a conclusion of our analysis we can state that as long as the main land-dependent activities (agriculture, forestry, housing, tourism, local mining) cease to be viable under an existing socio-economic structure, then it is hardly possible to sustain the rural landscape on an appropriate level by non-commodity products (such as environment preservation, cultural heritage, nature conservation, employment etc.).
1 The study was prepared in the frame of EUROLAN (EU-5 Framework Project), QLK5-CT-2002-02346, as a compiled version of the Hungarian National Report, The national project co-ordinator: Prof. Dr. Gabor Szabo.
A part of places with high ecological values coincides with the areas with unfavourable agricultural endowments and underdeveloped micro-regions. We think so that the marginalisation preserves the non-environmental-sound activities and hinders the development of multifunctional agriculture and this process can change only by joint utilisation of endogenous and exogenous resources and methods. Thus the successful programmes for agri-environmental protection and multifunctional land use can serve the moderation of negative effects of marginalisation or maybe the marginalisation process itself. -
Regional economic achievements and reindustrialisation in Hajdú-Bihar county
65-74Views:656The North Great Plain region is one of the backward regions of Hungary. The low level of economic development is mainly due to the lack of industrial development. The region is poor in natural resources, its main resources are land, natural gas fields, carbon dioxide, thermal water and the clay mineral stock.
The structure of GDP per capita of the county is different than the country average mainly because of the high proportion of agriculture.
The proportion of the industry and the building industry is not significant. Of the various service provider sectors, trade, transport and telecommunications have a small proportion, while financial and economic service providers have even lower share, which is due to the fact that these sectors are mostly concentrated in Budapest. The share of public and human service prodivers is higher than average due to the University of Debrecen.
The GDP which expresses the economic development of the county in a complex way increased four times its previous value in nominal value between 1995–2009. However, if the real value is considered, the increase is less than 25%, as opposed to the country average, which was less than 40%.
The most complex index of the development level of an economy is GDP expressed either in nominal or real value. If expressed in dollars, GDP is suitable for international comparison with the correction based on the purchasing power parity per person.
The county represents 4.3% of the people employed in the industrial sector in Hungary, while its share in industrial production is only 3.3% which is lower than the regional and population share of the county within Hungary. As regards industrial production per person, Hajdú-Bihar was the 10th county in Hungary; therefore, it is considered to be a less industrialised county.
The product structure of GDP is suitable for drawing useful development conclusions, but the result is more reliable if the income creation ability is also analysed on the basis of the employment structure. -
The situation of agricultural education in the Hungarian language in Romania
11-14Views:218Our objective was to analyse the situation of Hungarian language agricultural higher education in Romania. Our analyses have been focused mainly on Kovászna county. Following the evaluation of the characteristics of the county, we assessed the situation of Hungarian language higher education in Romania. History is considered important, because Hungarian language agricultural higher education goes back to the 1860s. The best solution for measuring the current reputation was the completion of questionnaires, which was done by 140 randomly selected people in Kovászna county. Following the evaluation and analysis of the questionnaires we found that local agricultural education, plant production and livestock farming are important activities for the locals. However, it is sure that even if they are satisfied with the education, they consider continuous development very important, since it would be a major help for the employment and subsistence of fresh graduates in Kovászna county.
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Connections between land usage, property structure and agricultural enterprises in Hungary
31-34Views:172The last decade of Hungarian agriculture was marked and changes which affected all parts of agricultural production. This process resulted in a new ownership and organisation structure. The paper presents the effects of the changes in ownership on land use and the various enterprise forms and intends to outline the main tendencies. In general, it can be stated that the role of agriculture in GDP production and employment is decreasing in Hungary, but according to concurrent opinions of experts, agriculture still has and will have a major role in income production and the ease of social tensions in rural areas in the future as well. Hungary’s accession to the European Union provides new chances and new prospects for Hungarian agriculture and rural areas. Hungarian agriculture became a part of the internal market which includes about 450 million people. The safety of marketing became stronger, the rate of financial support is increasing and the income of growers will increase in the future. This process implies more obligations and the keeping of strict regulations. Competition inside the internal market is intensifying, competitiveness will be more important while the chances of development and investment of the growers and the feasibility of more effective land use are increasing. After the accession, integration into the directives formulated in the CAP and the packages of measures accepted in it is framework have growing importance.
These directives encourage farm-reallocation, namely the rational estate concentration. In general, it can be stated that rational estate concentration, and more effective land use as a consequence, will increase the efficiency of agricultural production. -
System of relations between competitiveness and social cohesion in the European Union (2007–2020)
39-45Views:259I 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. -
The Effect of EU Accession on the Hungarian Tobacco Sector. The Evaluation of the Regulations
368-377Views:164Tobacco growing can be regarded as a special small sector of Hungarian agriculture. However, studying it from a different point of view, we can see that it is an outstanding sector among others in agriculture. Not only is its budget importance that makes it significant (its total budgetary income is more than 200 billion HUF), and on the other hand it also plays an important role in employment and income output.
Nevertheless questions of regulation arise, and especially those of its justification, methods and scope. Moreover, EU accession forces Hungary to redraw its regulatory statutes for legal harmonization. Below is a discussion of the impacts of this process, as well as of the domestic tobacco market itself. -
Labour-market conditions of the youth in the Derecske-Létavértes sub region
173-177Views:207Researches of the youth have been of great interest in social studies in the past decades, since up-coming generations provide supplies for the future, they are the so-called next generation. The problem of the young being afflicted by unemployment is more and more apparent, and not only in Hungary; moreover, in smaller, underprivileged settlements it is even more on the increase. Considering conditions of the youth in the labour-market, we can gain a valuable insight in their lifes as well as their opportunities and future prospects.
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Distribution of family farms according to estate size and land usage in Hajdú-Bihar County
130-136Views:184In harmony with European tendencies, the role of agriculture and its share in GDP output, as well as in employment, is continuously decreasing in Hungary and Hajdú-Bihar County. At the same time, according to the specialized literature, the role of agriculture is still extremely important in the income of the rural population and in easing the present social tensions, and this will not change in the future. The economic and social processes of the last one and a half decades caused radical changes in agriculture. The above-mentioned processes resulted in new property and organizational structure in the field of leasehold and land structure. The rational land concentration which came to pass in the last few years can be mentioned as a favourable tendency that improves the efficiency of agricultural activities, as well as the more effective land usage accompanied by this process. In addition, it supports the integration with principles formulated in the Common Agricultural Policy. In this study, I survey the effects of established processes and the change of land usage in the case of individual family enterprises in Hajdú-Bihar County. The choice of the examination area was motivated by the higher proportion of agricultural area in comparison with the national average and the fact that this sector has great importance today, too.
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Analysis of changes in resources and outputs of companies and partnerships in Hungarian agriculture
65-68Views:235The aim of the study was to examine the achievement of Hungarian agricultural companies and partnerships, particularly agricultural co-operatives based on the aggregated database of National Tax and Customs Administration (NAV)1. From the methodological aspect, descriptive statistical methods and time series analysis were used. One of the most important conclusions is that the socio-economic weight of the agricultural co-operatives was strongly decreased in the period after the EU accession. The other important statement is that apart from the general examination of economic actors on aggregated level the comparative analysis of the single organizations forms would be needed. In the case of co-operatives, separated examination of the former type producer co-operatives and the so-called new type ones (e.g. marketing co-operatives etc.) would be necessary.