Lecture about the EU's Common Agricultural Policy. Given at University of Antwerp, 12 May 2014

1. The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP)
12 May 2014
Jeroen Candel, Wageningen University

2. 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)

3. 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

4. A small quiz (3)
Which country gets the largest share out of the CAP
budget?
A) France
B) Germany
C) Poland

5. 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

6. Mansholt plan
• Structural reform EU
agriculture
• Noted limits price support
• Reduce land under
cultivation, scale increase
• But: resistance too strong

7. 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

8. 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

9. 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

10. 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

11. Time for celebration: 50 years of CAP

12. But also new challenges: food price crisis

13. 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

17. 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?

18. 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

23. Thank you for your attention!
More info:
jeroen.candel@wur.nl
Twitter: @JeroenWUR