The operation of the Agricultural Intervention Centre

The establishment of the Agricultural Intervention Centre (AIC) on 1 January 1998 was an important milestone in the development of the Hungarian agricultural market organisation. The AIC is an agency responsible for operating a number of Hungarian (and ultimately EU) support measures.
    Though the Agricultural Market Regulation Office is operating, the regulation of the agricultural market has long been missing an organisation for the operative implementation of the decisions. When the Agricultural Market Regulation Office (AMRO) was created, the establishing officers thought that operative implementation would be carried out by the Office. Experience has shown that there is a need for both an organisation to determine the regulations of the agricultural market (AMRO), and another, a market-oriented controlling office, that implements he regulations in practice (AIC).
    Besides implementation, the Agricultural Intervention Centre reflects onto the regulations, reporting the effect of the decisions, and the volume of used subsidies received by products-groups, companies, regions and periods. Besides the compilation of these reports, the AIC can help to develop and strengthenthe market order through its intervention activities.
    The AIC needed to be established to implement the new system of market subsidies, the effective use of state funds, the efficient development of market procedures and the development requirement during the integration ofto the institutional system of the European Union. The AIC was also established with a view to making the process of subsidy payments clearer and more certain. The Agricultural Intervention Centre may become the paying agency for EU funded subsidies. The Centre will promote the efficient use of the System of the European Union in the agricultural sector.