On 19-21 February 2003 the international conference entitled "EU: CAP and Enlargement – An Opportunity for Environment and Nature?" took place in Potsdam, Germany. The primary goal of the conference was to analyse and discuss the complex interactions between EU enlargement, the Common Agricultural Policy and the related impacts on nature and environment. In October 2003 the conference proceedings have been published in the series BfN-Skripten of the German Federal Agency for Nature Conservation.

The conference was part of an Ecologic project on behalf of the German Federal Agency for Nature Conservation. In preparation for the conference, a background paper was developed, and a survey was conducted. The background paper presents various scenarios outlining the interactions between different aspects of CAP funding mechanisms, transition processes, land use changes and environmental impacts. In addition, different instruments of the CAP, such as direct payments, modulation or cross-compliance, as well as their related impacts on environment and nature were analysed. The primary goal of the survey was to identify the specific situation in the Candidate Countries concerning the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), EU-Enlargement and their impact on environment and nature.

This publication contains the background paper, the results of the questionnaire and the presentations of the conference. BfN-Skripten are not available in book trade. The publication is included in the literature database DNL-online.