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Agricultural sector in the EU functions under strong influence of the CAP. EU finances the measures to support production of agricultural products and food. CAP is founded on the goals of ensuring price stability. Correlation and regression analysis have largely confirmed the given hypotheses. General price levels in EU, as well as the prices of agricultural products have been stable, as shown by the respective trend line equations. Correlation and regression analysis of support for agricultural production and prices of agricultural products indicate a moderate correlation level, i.e. the support contributes to price stability. Correlation analysis confirms the influence of prices of industrial products on the prices of agricultural products. Results of price movement analysis of agricultural products and foods on one hand, and independent variables affecting prices on the other, show that CAP objectives have been mainly accomplished. Thus, interventionism in agriculture brings economic effects and justifies the CAP measures.

The European Union is the most complex and by any aspect the most unique example of a regional economic integration. Its origin, evolution and survival are based on a common legislative and institutional framework. The so-called common policies implemented in a number of economic and non-economic areas are particularly distinctive. Most of them are implemented on two levels: national and communal. The only common policy that is fully implemented at the European Union level is the Community Agrarian Policy (CAP), whereas the agriculture has the highest expenditure in the communal budget. The function of CAP is primarily economic as its goals are strictly related to economic issues: price stability of agricultural products, productivity growth, higher wages for the farmers, etc. The CAP strengthens the Union’s social cohesion, which is of utmost importance in times of constant crises, BREXIT and other extreme instabilities. For this reason, the CAP has been in the processes of continuous reforms (MacShary, Mansholt and those of recent times) for decades, in order to increase its efficiency and justify enormous financial investments. The CAP results depend on the achievement of preset objectives and the exchange of agricultural products and food that the European Union generates globally. It has been demonstrated that the CAP is a significant common policy, both in achieving economic goals and in the sphere of strengthening communal cohesion.

Economic experts’ predictions of a slowdown in the EU’s global economy and economic growth in the year 2020 were based on various risks and uncertainties existing on a world scale, ranging from the US-China trade war, traditionally strained relations of the EU and the US on the one hand and the Russian Federation on the other, all the way to BREXIT and economic migration to developed EU countries. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has further aggravated those forecasts, so that the entire EU is recording a historic decline in all macroeconomic aggregates. The beginning of the pandemic in the EU was accompanied by the complete border lockdown of the entire Union, which greatly affected the economies of the member states. The EU is experiencing a decline of both real and nominal GDP, declining incomes, employment decline and unemployment increase. This paper will investigate the impact of COVID-19 onto GDP, unemployment, and EU public debt. Correlation-regression analysis confirms the positive correlation between these variables and the economic crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition to the economic crisis, a crisis of EU health systems, which requires huge economic investments. A more prominent economic recovery is hard to expect until the global pandemic ends. One thing is for certain, this economic crisis will continue in 2021, whereby a more significant recovery is expected only in the year 2022. Certainly, it will take years to make up for the economic losses caused by the pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]