Chapter 21 The Common Agricultural Policy

1
Chapter 21 The Common Agricultural Policy

• Cini (ed.) European Union Politics, 2nd edition
• OUP Online Teaching Resources

2
Structure of the Lecture

• The original CAP and the issue of CAP reform
• A dramatic shift in 1992
• An on-going reform process
• New challenges and debates for CAP
• Conclusion the CAP at a crossroads

3
The original CAP and the issue of CAP reform

• Objectives of the CAP (Treaty of Rome)
• Market unity, community preference, financial
  solidarity
  
• What comprised the original CAP?
• A guarantee price a public intervention system
  a system of variable levies

4
The original CAP and the issue of CAP reform

• Reforming the CAP
• Agricultural surpluses (butter mountains, wine
  lake)
  
• The cost of operating the CAP
• Problems for the reform of the CAP inflationary
  bias in decision-making

5
A Dramatic shift in 1992

• Increasing external pressures on the CAP in the
  1980s
  
• The inclusion of agriculture in the Uruguay Round
  of GATT in 1986
  
• The MacSharry Reform
• Price support Vs Direct support (individual
  direct payments decoupling)
  
• Difficulty of the implementation (Roles of France
  Germany)
  
• Was the 1992 reform innovative?

6
An On-going reform process

• Agenda 2000 the 1999 Berlin Compromise
• Newly emphasised on environment and on
  sustainability
  
• Multifunctionality of European agriculture

7
An On-going reform process

• The Mid Term Reviews of June 2003
• WTO Round in 2001
• French opposition (reform postponed until 2006)
• The mid term review of the CAP a second
  revolution after the 1992 reform (?)
  
• Single Farm Payment (SFP) for a complete
  decoupling between support and production
  

8
New challenges and debates for the CAP

• Issues of sustainable development environment
• BSE, GMOs
• Environmentally-friendly modes of farming

9
New challenges and debates for the CAP

• Social concerns
• Social justice equity (raised by the farming
  community)
  
• A shift in the balance of power within
  traditional farmers unions growing tensions
  (e.g. COPA)
  
• Debates for the CAP new actors new issues, but
  changes in the CAP still resisted in the Council

10
Conclusion the CAP at a crossroads

• Reforms of the CAP successful?
• The evolution of the CAP
• Complexity of the links which exist between
  national, European and international political
  arenas
  
• Intersectoral issues various governments,
  coalitions of interests European and
  international institutions
  
• The CAP at a crossroads national interests
  international bargains