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This paper uses a dynamic, partial equilibrium econometric model to analyze the impact of the 2003 CAP reform and changes of exchange rate on agricultural markets and agricultural incomes in Slovakia. We evaluate three scenarios: (1) baseline scenario with no change in agricultural policies (Single Area Payment Scheme and top-ups are assumed until 2015), (2) CAP reform scenario with full decoupling from 2007 and with modulation from 2013, and (3) exchange rate scenario. In the baseline scenario, production increases. Consumption increases with some exceptions (like pork). Agricultural income rises significantly in the baseline scenario. The full decoupling has a minor impact on agricultural markets relative to the baseline. Weak Euro would lead to higher prices and higher production but lower consumption. Change in the exchange rate causes substitution in consumption of certain commodities due to the relative price changes.

There still exist the differences in the legal frame of VAT, its interpretation and application of the rules in practice between the EU member states. The application of VAT during providing management services to an enterprise in other EU state directly or through a subsidiary in the state of the recipient is different as well. Questions of the VAT application during the provision of management services were searched by using standard methods of the scientific work in the frame of five selected EU countries - Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and the Czech Republic.

The common denominator of all rather different names and understandings of it (the problem of the "model of man and society development", problem of the "lack of the civilisation concept" etc.) is that there is no clear understanding regarding the question of the perspective approach (or approaches), the relevant basic development trends of humankind in the material as well as non-material sphere, i.e. in the basic question of many philosophers "Who are we, whence and where are we going". We mention only some of the problems, which are at present directly connected to the "problem of the future of man". These are the problems from the sphere of all-human social, ethical, humanitarian and cultural aspects of the human civilisation development, which are today (but need not be already in the near future) in the centre of attention: the problem of social inequality extension, the problem of spreading epidemics and drug abuse, the problem of the uncontrollable migration and city agglomerations growth, the problem of terrorism.

The paper deals with the current trends in development of communication infrastructure which is, above all, represented by high-speed Internet connection (broadband). It is focused on conditions of the Czech Republic; or more precisely, on its rural areas, including possibilities of further development in the following period in context of trends in the world, in the OECD and the EU countries.

Regional development strategy has to be designed with knowledge of human resources' development trends. Monitoring of this factor is of concern namely in rural areas where disfavourable demographic situation may occur. Leaving this problem unsolved would constitute depopulation of certain endangered regions. The paper is focused on analysis of human resources' condition and development granding groups of settlements by size.

The main aim of the article is to understand the influence of factors biasing purchase decisions connected with measurement of consumers' involvement. Consumption expenditures are purposefully subdivided according to the classification made by the Statistical Office of the European Communities. The performed survey showed that the most important factors biasing purchases of all commodity groups are products' characteristics and the perceived quality. Together with these goes the factor price, nevertheless for example for the commodity group health price did not appear in the scale of the perceived importance at all. Factor necessity of need proved to be significant for decision making about the purchase of all commodities with the exception of alcoholic drinks and tobacco and recreation. Former experience compared to that is not crucial for clothing and footwear and housing equipment and contents. For alcoholic drinks and tobacco, there has notably approved also the factor brand. These analyses enable disclosure of rules of consumer decision making and thereby definition which factors for individual commodities should be targeted by the help of the marketing doyens or where the gradual changes should be achieved.

The possibility of knowledge maps use in the decision-making process in agriculture and rural development is discussed in this paper. Each knowledge map presents a visualization of knowledge using different tools, where a mathematical model can be applied as one of them. The hierarchical structure of a knowledge map conforms to the general structure of a mathematical model. The mathematical model, when successfully solved and correctly read, is a knowledge map in itself. The parallels exist also between the creation process of a mathematical model and of a knowledge map. In general, every phase of a system approach can lead to a special knowledge map. The following paper explains this process and demonstrates it on the farm production structure optimisation problem solved by using a linear programming model.

The paper deals with the financial situation of two selected agricultural enterprises in productive as well as in less favourable areas (LFA) in the present situation - before and consecutively after the accession to the EU. 11 selected ratio indicators are used to evaluate the financial situation. There are proposed some preparatory precautions - based on the analysis of the financial situation that can be helpful for Czech farmers in gradual adaptation into the CAP conditions.

The paper includes partial results of the research oriented on the habits and behaviour of consumers in the wine market in the Czech Republic. Based on direct questioning of 1 000 respondents from the whole Czech Republic, we found that 11.3% of respondents drink wine several times a week, 29.8% of respondents at least once a week, and 23.2% drink wine several times a month. Only 2.7% of respondents do not drink wine at all. 30.3% of respondents drink wine more often than before, especially because of the fact, that they like wine more, it is of a better quality, and the offer is bigger. 34.1% of respondents buy wine several times a month especially in supermarkets or hyper- markets (45.2%) and in special vine-stores (23.8%). 52.5% of respondents prefer quality varietal wine. Rank of the top ten wines most often bought by the selected sample of respondents is: Frankovka, Cabernet Sauvignon, Müller Thurgau, Veltlínské zelené, Rulandské bílé, Svatovavřinecké, Modrý Portugal, Chardonnay, Ryzlink vlašský, Bohemia sekt.

The core objectives for rural development support for the period 2007-2013 are: (1) improving the competitiveness of agriculture and forestry, (2) improving the environment and the countryside, and (3) improving the quality of life in rural areas and encouraging the diversification of economic activity. The Council Regulation (EC) No. 1698/2005 includes an unambiguous targeting of smaller and micro-enterprises to sustain job opportunity in rural areas. For this scheduled period, a minimum funding of 10% of the total EU contribution has been withheld by the Council Regulation for the measures connected with the quality of life and diversification of the rural economy outside agriculture and forestry. In spite of this, the EU Court of Auditors has concluded that rural development policy in Europe is ineffective because it continues to allow member states to adopt a predominantly sectoral approach with the primary focus on the agricultural sector (Special Report No. 17/2006). This paper deals with the possible impact of one RDP measure - the reduction of LFA payments according to farm size. Taking into account the variety of regions in Europe and the different situations at national level, it is difficult to provide a single guideline to solve the problem. Implementation without a deep analysis could lead to undesirable consequences. A specific adjustment to the situation of the given country will be advisable.

The paper analyzes the development and the prospects of organic farming in the Czech Republic with particular emphasis on organic beef farming. The background information on organic farming in the Czech Republic regarding the structure of land use, legislation and support payments as well as a short description of the market for organic beef is provided. An analysis of the economic performance and of the impact of payments on the economic situation of organic beef farms follows. Grazing livestock farms, mostly cow-calf systems, are the most widespread farm type in the Czech Republic. Five typical farm models were set up with the aim of giving an overview of the diversity of organic beef production systems. The results indicate that organic beef farming is in most cases economically viable. Nevertheless, organic farming payments, as well as other payments, account for a high share of economic success, so that it can be stated that organic grazing livestock farms are highly dependent on support payments.

This paper deals with problems of sustainable tourism. The goal of this work is to point out the current situation, possibilities and approaches to ecological certification in tourism in the Czech Republic. A survey was conducted among accommodation providers - it was targeted on assessing the level of conversancy with ecolabels that already exist in the Czech Republic as well as in Europe. The results of this survey are included in this paper. Furthermore, the attitudes of providers towards obtaining ecolabels were being found out.

This report deals with the problems of the status of rural households in the stratification system of the post-socialist Slovak society. The authors take as the basis the concept of associated classification and knowledge about the trends in the development of the social structure of Slovak society in the transformation period. The processing of empirical data from the survey research of rural households in three districts served as an example to compare the classification of households within the economic and socio-cultural lines by the means of the selected indicators. The analysis refers to the inconsistency of the stratification of rural households according to the economic and income statuses as well as education, population and socioeconomic qualities which are significantly conditioned by the regional position and situation. The representative types of rural households for the individual social strata are characterized in the conclusions. They are characterized with regard to the used criteria.

Abstract: Services become an important participant of the international economic relationships during the last 20 to 30 years. Since the sector of services used formerly to be applied rather more on the national level, we speak of the internalisation of services, which become an important article of international trade. Compared to the dynamics of world trade with tangible goods, services reach higher year-to year increases and their share in the world trade turnover still increases. The explanation lies in the growing importance of services connected to the level of the economy development and in the foreign trade with services liberalisation. The value of the services export on the world level reached approx.1.5 trill. USD in 2000. The value of the world export of tangible goods was 5.5 trill. USD in the same year, so that export of services covered approximately one fifth of the total world tangible and non-tangible goods. The share of services in the world export (tangible and non-tangible) grew continually.

This paper analyzes the data on the development of the main factors of the demand for wine and wine consumption in the Czech Republic. The average annual wine consumption, one of the wine demand factors, grew between1991 and 2005 from 14.8 l to 17 l per capita. Following this trend, we can expect the average annual wine consumption 17.4 l per capita in year 2010. However there are critical factors in the development of the demand for wine demand here. Specifically it is the daily feasible ratio of alcohol in wine and other alcoholic drinks, especially beer that we can treat as the substitute of wine. The ethanol consumption in beer accounts for 50% of the total ethanol consumption in alcoholic drinks in the Czech Republic. The negative influence on wine demand growth has been the price of other alcoholic drinks, especially beer that is the cheapest form of ethanol.

Food safety is important due to new protection measurements applied in the growing world trade as much as the raise and continuity of life quality. In recent years, the countries have begun to face with important problems both in domestic consumption and exportation, because of the sensitivity of consumers on the safety of food products. Regarding this, in the dairy industry, which is an important sub sector of the food industry, the food safety issues has begun to gain importance in developing countries like the developed ones as a result of the world trade. Therefore the aim of this study can be stated as examining the food safety systems for dairy industry and comparing them withTurkey.

This article presents some partial conclusions from the solution to the Research Project QF 4142 Higher exploitation of non-food production in the industry. The funding and supporting programmes of the growing of short rotation coppices (SRC) are described. The establishment of short rotation coppices and the subsequent exploitation of wood mass are promising trends of diversification of farmers' activities in the rural space. Plot sizes in ha and financial support to the establishment of the SRC plantations are given for 2001-2004, when a total of 166 ha of supported short rotation coppices was established. The establishment support is paid at a single installment while the amount paid for the establishment of the SRC production plantation is 60 000 CZK/ha and the amount paid for the establishment of mother plantation (reproduction plantation) is 75 000 CZK/ha.

The contribution deals with the spatial distribution of approved projects under the Sectoral Operational Programme - Agriculture and Rural Development (SOP ARD) in the programme period 2004-2006. The approved projects from agrifood industry were concentrated in the production regions of western and southern Slovakia. It does not indicate only the high absorption capacity of the enterprise subjects, but also really well prepared projects in these regions. In the next programme period, we will have to count with unevenly distributed projects. On the other hand, the low absorption ability in the northern and mainly eastern areas of the SR may result in forming the islands of extreme extensity with negative socio-economical impacts. The SOP ARD (analogous to Sapard) accelerates the process of enterprising selection and significantly supports the increase of competitiveness in economically powerful farms.

An important issue in the theory of social constructivism is the issue of spatial arrangement. Space is grasped as the primary/secondary zone of operation. The secondary zone of operation is determined by the use of technical means. Technically conditioned social networks currently give a new dimension to both zones. From this point of view, the new solutions for the network/agglomeration economies arise: networks may substitute for agglomerations.

Land market has started to develop extremely in the Czech Republic since 2002. The annual sale and purchase of estates represented 0.2% of the total land resources between 1993-2001. The sale and the purchase have represented 2.9% of total land resources after 2002 and especially after the EU accession of the Czech Republic. These values of sale are the highest from the EU countries. On the other side, land prices decreased slightly in comparison with the prices before the EU accession. Prices of agricultural land are significantly lower than in the EU 15.

In order to achieve success on the domestic and foreign markets, the producers and distributors should know the customers´ behavior and possibilities how to positively affect it for their advantage. The consumers carry out many shopping decisions every day. Most of the big sellers study these decisions in order to know what, where, when, how, how much or how many and why the customers buy. The marketers have to know how the consumers will react to different marketing programmes used by the company. The communication media such as information carriers are objective decision of the individual advertising sponsors. This paper shows the volume of financial means invested by the advertising sponsors, production groups as well as the analysis of the food advertising market and the following survey of the biggest food advertisers in the Slovak Republic.

Management of natural resources in the context of sustainable development can be defined as the economic management of natural resources to allow their perpetual and undiminished supply. At the same time, use of the local natural resources should contribute to the economic and social development of the local community. It is vitally important to emphasize the role of local participation and knowledge. Experience, understanding, and expertise need to be assessed to help to determine the most effective roles for local individuals within the sustainable natural resource project. This assessment and its implications for the economy, community and protection of natural resources at the state, regional and local levels are a subject for case study.

The paper deals with the employment of decoupled direct payments as the model of targeted lump-sum financial transfers to the farmers. It considers whether decoupled payments may alter producers' resource allocation over time and lead to effects on production. Decisive topics of influence through which decoupled payments as an instrument of income redistribution could affect production through recipient' decisions in both short and long time horizons are bringing to the attention as follows: wealth and investment effects, sector consolidation and payment basis effects in the framework of agricultural policy.

Agribusiness has made many important contributions to the Turkish economy. These conributions related to meeting of the nation's food demand, creating added value, increasing and diversifying exports and increasing employment. While the relative importance of the Turkish agriculture sector decreases over the years, in the economy, agribusiness still preserves its place and developments. This paper assesses the contribution of agribusiness to the economy during the period 1994-2004, in terms of production and export values and the firms working in this area. Within the agribusiness, the most stable and best-developed industries were food and textile in the period concerned. Changes in the economy influences agribusiness but the basic problem that affects it is development is the integration with the agricultural sector. That is the downstream relations, which is not the desired level at all.

Bulgaria faced and still is facing many challenges in the accession process to the EU. Free movement of capital, and especially the development of the land market, is one of them. Although the progress is made, the market is still developing and the land prices are still below the average prices in EU. There are different reasons for this: very fragmented land after the restitution process, chaotic transactions, lack of bank credits for agricultural purposes, unrealistic expectations after the accession to the EU, etc. The land lease continues to be the preferred way for land cultivation instead of buying of land. All those problems are studied in the current paper. A concept for e-service that could contribute to solving the problems is introduced; relevant e-services are summarized and a particular solution is presented that uses results of the eTen project Bizmap.net. It is described how this solution could be used in the Bulgarian land market.

The paper presents selected results of the research intent No. MSM 6215648904 "Czech national economy in processes of integration and globalization and the development in sectors of agriculture and services under conditions of European integrated market". Its authors evaluate the effects of subsidies on the development of organic farming in the Czech Republic and in some selected EU countries. In the Czech Republic, the height of subsidies for the organic farming is continuously increasing. In 1998, the total amount of subsidies was 48 million CZK while in 2004 it increased to nearly 277 million CZK. Numbers of organic farms as well as the area under organic farming increased in dependence on the subsidies for this form of agricultural production.

The real trade development is estimated by the recalculation of nominal value through unit values (prices). The unit value indices reflect, besides the change of prices, also the changes in the structure and qualitative changes of the traded products. In the 70s, the average yearly increase of unit values reached 14% and reflected namely the inflation caused by the oil shocks. Since then, it reaches in average up to 1%. We can suppose that, under the normal conditions, unit values growth is rather the consequence of the qualitative and structural changes (increased share of the more sophisticated products of processing industry), in fact, prices in international trade have been decreasing for years already. The question whether the world trade growth rates decrease or accelerate is then still open. It is certain that the world trade volume growth rate (6.3%) has shown a considerable surpass to the production growth rate (4.1%).

The economic impact of the EC procurement policy is an important aspect of public procurement in the most areas of industry and agriculture. There exist some studies about the economic impact of the EC procurement policy. The first major study was the one commissioned by the European Commission and published in 1997 as a part of a broader evaluation of the European single market. This dealt with the period from 1987 when the directives were substantially revised, to 1994. In February 2004, the Commission published a new summary analysis of the economic impact of the EC rules covering the period 1995-2002. A report on the functioning of public procurement markets in the EU: benefits from the application of the EU directives and challenges for the future (EC 2004). This confirms a much greater importance of the indirect cross-border activity as compared with the direct cross-border binding activity, and also indicates that this form of trade in public markets has increased further. The above mentioned studies in relation to the Economic Impact of the EC procurement Policy are the object of this article.

To determine the countryside, different criteria can be used from the simplest one - the population density - to more complex ones like the economic indicators or the combination of factors characterizing the particular types of municipalities or regions. Generally, it is possible to divide these indicators into subjective and objective ones and further to categorize them according to other properties. The objective of this article is to collect as much information as possible about the methods of defining the borders of rural areas used in the Czech Republic and to set these criteria into a system. We would like to evaluate the applicability of these criteria and to state the advantages and disadvantages of their use. The article also compares statistical data related to the selected features characterizing countryside.

This paper analyses the enforcement of the 2003 CAP reform in 5 countries of the West European Union: France, Germany, Italy, Spain and United Kingdom. The reform gives multiple possibilities of adaptation at a national or regional level. Two standard strategies are foreseen: that of the States which mobilized to the maximum the innovations that the reform allowed, and that of the States which have chosen the option of a minimal application, to limit the effects of reorientation of the productions (maximum sectors remain coupled) or of the redistribution of the payments (historical references). The great diversity of the conditions of agricultural production is one of the main explanations of the differences of enforcement of the reform. We analyse the first impacts of the reform. One can generally expect that the market of entitlements will be a priori limited, because of the links of the entitlements to land. The regionalisation of the calculation of the entitlements is incontestably the mechanism, which introduces the most redistributive effects, compared to the individual historical references. We examine also the consequences of the Single Payment System (SPS) on land rent and land market.