FARMERS UNIONS AND THE RESTRUCTURING OF EUROPEAN AGRICULTURE

This article analyses farmers' unions in the southern EU countries, wi th special emphasis on the Spanish case. The changing economic and pol itical context of fanning has resulted in a diversity of new strategie s and discourses. The paper describes the emerging new relations betwe en farmers' unions and the state, in which farming, the environment an d rural development are integrated. The uniqueness of the southern EU countries lies in the fact that farmers are demanding a new 'social pa ct,' which implies that farm modernization is to be combined with rura l development and environmental concern.