Agronomy Science, przyrodniczy lublin, czasopisma up, czasopisma uniwersytet przyrodniczy lublin
The aim of the study was to assess the importance of agriculture for the economy of the European Union Member States, with the division into old (EU-15) and new (EU-13) Member States. The time range of the research covered the years 2005–2019 and it was carried out using the Eurostat database. The conducted research showed the diversity of EU countries in terms of the impact of agriculture on macroeconomic indicators, the territorial range of this sector and the level of its development. The largest share of agricultural land in the country’s area can be noticed in Great Britain, Ireland and Denmark, where it accounted for over 60% of their territory. It was shown that comparing to the so-called old Union, most of the new Member States present higher percentage of people working in this sector and share of agriculture in gross value added. These countries were also characterized by lower labor productivity in agriculture. This occurrence was mostly the case in Bulgaria and Romania, as well as in Poland.