lecture common agriculture policy
DESCRIPTION
Lecture about the EU's Common Agricultural Policy. Given at University of Antwerp, 12 May 2014TRANSCRIPT
The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP)
12 May 2014Jeroen Candel, Wageningen University
A small quiz (1)
How much does the EU spend on the CAP?
A) 20% of its budget (27,5 billion euro per year)
B) 40% of its budget (55 billion euro per year)
C) 60% of its budget (82,5 billion euro per year)
A small quiz (2)
Who’s the EU commissioner for agriculture and rural development?
A) Dacian Ciolos
B) Mariann Fischer Boel
C) José Graziano da Silva
A small quiz (3)
Which country gets the largest share out of the CAP budget?
A) France
B) Germany
C) Poland
How it all started• Treaty of Rome (1957)• Wish of France to include
agricultural products in common market
• CAP mechanisms in effect from 1962
• Objectives: – Productivity & self-sufficiency– Standard of living farmers &
fair prices consumers– Stabilise agricultural markets
Mansholt plan
• Structural reform EU agriculture
• Noted limits price support• Reduce land under
cultivation, scale increase• But: resistance too strong
70s and 80s: crisis
CAP big success, too big..:
Costs
High prices for consumers
Environment
Overproduction: milk lakes and butter mountains
Pressure trade partners
1984: Milk quota, but insufficient: increasing pressure
Reforms
1992 MacSharry Reform: direct income support
Agenda 2000: rural development (second pillar)
2003 Fischler Reform: decoupling, cross-compliance, mulftifunctionality
2008 Health Check: phasing out milk quotas
2013 Ciolos Reform
How to explain CAP’s policy development?
Lynggaard & Nedergaard (2009):• Stability by looking at reform rounds: short-
term interests• Change by looking at periods in between:
changing societal concerns and values
Societal concerns and values
• 60s-80s: food security, farmer incomes, disadvantaged areas
• 80s-90s: overproduction, environment, developing countries
• 2000s: food safety, environment, quality, diversity, food security
Time for celebration: 50 years of CAP
But also new challenges: food price crisis
Increased public engagement
Societal & Political concerns:
1. Size of the total budget
2. Distribution of the budget
3. Requirements for farmers
4. External effects
First time that EP had
co-decision powers in
CAP reform
What were the hot potatoes in the recent negotiations? It’s not food security
Size budget
Greening measures
Pillar I vs Pillar II
7500 amendments European Parliament
How to make rules that are both flexible and strict?
Inter-institutional agreement September 2013
•Convergence payments between member states•Payments on basis hectares•Greening Payment (30%): permanent grassland, crop diversification, ecological focus areas, or equivalent measures•15% of budget pillar can be transferred•End sugar quota in 2015•Member states have a lot of discretionary powers in implementation
