FEATURES OF THE TRANSFORMATION OF AGRARIAN RELATIONS IN BULGARIA AFTER ACCESSION TO THE EUROPEAN UNION (2007–2019)

Abstract

The article reveals the peculiarities of the development of industrial relations in the agricultural sector of the Bulgarian economy in terms of its membership in the European Union. Thanks to the involvement of a wide range of statistical sources, it is determined that modern Bulgarian society is experiencing profound changes in socio-economic development, the response to which has brought the Bulgarian agricultural sector to a competitive level. It is determined that the agricultural sector of the Bulgarian economy had a rather difficult way of adapting production relations to European requirements. At the same time, Bulgaria’s accession to the European Union stimulated the development of agriculture, contributed to the introduction of the latest agro-technical production technologies, rational land use, improvement of agricultural products. The main trends in the development of the agricultural sector of the Bulgarian economy after the country’s accession to the EU and the transformation processes in the sector are analyzed. In addition, as a result of an in-depth analysis, it was proved that the Bulgarian agricultural sector on the verge of joining the EU had a number of problems that hindered the increase of its productivity and profitability. Following Bulgaria’s accession to the European Economic Area, the country had to take a number of measures to address the above-mentioned problem. In particular, it consisted in the adaptation of agricultural legislation, state support measures to European norms and standards of agricultural production to European norms and requirements. The deepening of European integration and the further accession of Bulgaria to the EU accelerated the transformation of agricultural production relations and the modernization of agriculture, which was accompanied by the adaptation and harmonization of the agricultural sector to increase its productivity.