IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/eurcho/v18y2019i1p34-39.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Another Reform of the Common Agricultural Policy: What to Expect

Author

Listed:
  • Michel Petit

Abstract

Another reform of the CAP is on the agenda. This common policy, which was initiated almost 60 years ago is criticised by almost everybody. Even farmers, who are the main beneficiaries, are critical. Moreover, many NGOs that are concerned with a broad range of issues such as the environment, food safety, animal welfare, etc. argue that the CAP makes matters worse in these domains. These shortcomings and criticisms of the CAP suggest that a radical reform is in order. Yet, an analysis of the main determinants of the CAP since its inception suggests that such an outcome is very unlikely. The article focus is on a few long‐term economic and institutional forces which determine the interests of, and positions taken by, the main actors involved in the political process where they pursue their own objectives. The CAP debate today is dominated more than ever by the contradiction between the extreme pressures to cut public expenditures and the desire to protect farmers’ incomes which will be greatly affected by cuts in European payments. In this context, other societal concerns, although very vocal, will probably not be much taken into account. Similarly, equity concerns raised by the uneven distribution of payments received by farmers will probably be addressed only marginally. Une nouvelle réforme de la PAC est à l'ordre du jour. Presque tout le monde, y compris les agriculteurs qui en sont les principaux bénéficiaires, critique cette politique commune, initiée il y a presque soixante ans. En outre, de nombreuses ONG concernées par un large éventail de questions telles que l'environnement, la sécurité des aliments, le bien‐être des animaux, etc. soutiennent que la PAC aggrave la situation dans ces domaines. Ces lacunes et critiques de la PAC suggèrent qu'une réforme radicale s'impose. Cependant, selon une analyse des principaux déterminants de la PAC depuis sa création, un tel résultat est très improbable. L'article se concentre sur quelques forces économiques et institutionnelles à long terme qui déterminent les intérêts et les positions des principaux acteurs impliqués dans le processus de conception des politiques et qui poursuivent leurs propres objectifs. Le débat sur la PAC est aujourd'hui dominé plus que jamais par la contradiction entre les pressions extrêmes visant à réduire les dépenses publiques et la volonté de protéger les revenus des agriculteurs, qui seront grandement affectés par la réduction des paiements européens. Dans ce contexte, les autres préoccupations de la société, bien que très vives, ne seront probablement pas beaucoup prises en compte. De même, les problèmes d’équité soulevés par la répartition inégale des paiements reçus par les agriculteurs ne seront probablement traités que de manière marginale. Eine weitere Reform der GAP steht auf der Tagesordnung. Diese gemeinsame Politik, die vor fast sechzig Jahren eingeleitet wurde, wird von fast jedem beanstandet. Selbst die Landwirte, die die Hauptbegünstigten sind, sind kritisch. Darüber hinaus argumentieren viele Nichtregierungsorganisationen, die sich mit einem breiten Spektrum an Themen wie Umwelt, Lebensmittelsicherheit, Tierschutz usw. befassen, dass die GAP die Situation in diesen Bereichen verschlimmert. Diese Mängel und die Kritik an der GAP deuten darauf hin, dass eine radikale Reform erforderlich ist. Eine Analyse der wichtigsten Bestimmungsgründe der GAP seit ihrer Einführung zeigt jedoch, dass ein solches Ergebnis sehr unwahrscheinlich ist. Der Artikel konzentriert sich auf einige langfristige wirtschaftliche und institutionelle Kräfte, welche die Interessen und Positionen der Hauptakteure im politischen Prozess bestimmen, über die sie ihre eigenen Ziele verfolgen. Die heutige Debatte über die GAP wird mehr denn je vom Widerspruch zwischen dem extremen Druck, die öffentlichen Ausgaben zu kürzen, und dem Wunsch, die Einkommen der Landwirte zu stützen, beherrscht, die von den Kürzungen der EU‐Zahlungen erheblich betroffen sein würden. In diesem Zusammenhang werden andere gesellschaftliche Anliegen, auch wenn sie sehr lautstark sind, wahrscheinlich nur wenig Berücksichtigung finden. Ebenso werden die Bedenken hinsichtlich der Gerechtigkeit, die sich aus der ungleichen Verteilung der Zahlungen an die Landwirte ergeben, wahrscheinlich nur am Rande angesprochen.

Suggested Citation

  • Michel Petit, 2019. "Another Reform of the Common Agricultural Policy: What to Expect," EuroChoices, The Agricultural Economics Society, vol. 18(1), pages 34-39, April.
  • Handle: RePEc:bla:eurcho:v:18:y:2019:i:1:p:34-39
    DOI: 10.1111/1746-692X.12221
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/1746-692X.12221
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/1746-692X.12221?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Swinnen, Johan, 2021. "The political economy of agricultural and food policies," IFPRI book chapters, in: Agricultural development: New perspectives in a changing world, chapter 14, pages 471-502, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    2. Petit, Michel, 1985. "Determinants of agricultural policies in the United States and the European Community:," Research reports 51, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Kryszak, Łukasz, 2020. "Income Convergence In The Agricultural Sector In The Context Of The European Union’S Common Agricultural Policy," Roczniki (Annals), Polish Association of Agricultural Economists and Agribusiness - Stowarzyszenie Ekonomistow Rolnictwa e Agrobiznesu (SERiA), vol. 2020(3).
    2. Roberto Cagliero & Francesco Licciardo & Marzia Legnini, 2021. "The Evaluation Framework in the New CAP 2023–2027: A Reflection in the Light of Lessons Learned from Rural Development," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(10), pages 1-18, May.
    3. Emil Erjavec & Ilona Rac, 2023. "Improving the Quality of CAP Strategic Planning through Enhancing the Role of Agricultural Economics," EuroChoices, The Agricultural Economics Society, vol. 22(2), pages 71-76, August.
    4. Roberto Cagliero & Marzia Legnini & Francesco Licciardo, 2021. "Evaluating the New Common Agricultural Policy: Improving the Rules," EuroChoices, The Agricultural Economics Society, vol. 20(3), pages 27-33, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Berkeley Hill, 2017. "The United Kingdom's Domestic Policy for Agriculture after Brexit," EuroChoices, The Agricultural Economics Society, vol. 16(2), pages 18-23, August.
    2. Johan Swinnen & Alessandro Olper & Senne Vandevelde, 2021. "From unfair prices to unfair trading practices: Political economy, value chains and 21st century agri‐food policy," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 52(5), pages 771-788, September.
    3. Paul Fesenfeld, Lukas & Maier, Maiken & Brazzola, Nicoletta & Stolz, Niklas & Sun, Yixian & Kachi, Aya, 2023. "How information, social norms, and experience with novel meat substitutes can create positive political feedback and demand-side policy change," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 117(C).
    4. Trofimov, Ivan D., 2017. "Political economy of trade protection and liberalization: in search of agency-based and holistic framework of policy change," MPRA Paper 79504, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Kym Anderson, 2021. "Food policy in a more volatile climate and trade environment," Departmental Working Papers 2021-25, The Australian National University, Arndt-Corden Department of Economics.
    6. Fertő, Imre, 1999. "A Európai Unió közös agrárpolitikájának gazdaságtana II. A CAP politikai gazdaságtana [The economics of the European Union's Common Agricultural Policy, Part II. The political economy of CAP]," Közgazdasági Szemle (Economic Review - monthly of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences), Közgazdasági Szemle Alapítvány (Economic Review Foundation), vol. 0(9), pages 813-822.
    7. Naylor, Rosamond & Fang, Safari & Fanzo, Jessica, 2023. "A global view of aquaculture policy," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 116(C).
    8. Rosamond L. Naylor, 2019. "Long-Run Uncertainties for U.S. Agriculture : Agricultural Symposium 2019," Economic Review, Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, issue Special I, pages 51-84, July.
    9. Paweł Wiśniewski & Roman Rudnicki & Mariusz Kistowski & Łukasz Wiśniewski & Justyna Chodkowska-Miszczuk & Kazimierz Niecikowski, 2021. "Mapping of EU Support for High Nature Value Farmlands, from the Perspective of Natural and Landscape Regions," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 11(9), pages 1-28, September.
    10. Herve Guyomard & Louis Pascal Mahe & Terry L. Roe, 1994. "L'agriculture au GATT et la nouvelle PAC : la fin d'une exception ?," Post-Print hal-01593896, HAL.
    11. Meloni, Giulia & Swinnen, Johan, 2018. "Trade and terroir. The political economy of the world’s first geographical indications," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 1-20.
    12. Jonathan Brooks, 1996. "Agricultural Policies In Oecd Countries: What Can We Learn From Political Economy Models?," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(1‐4), pages 366-389, January.
    13. Haniotis, Tassos & Ames, Glenn C.W., 1987. "EC Enlargement and US Agricultural Exports," 1989 Occasional Paper Series No. 5 197665, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    14. Warley, T.K., 1988. "Agriculture in the GAIT: Past and Future," 1988 Conference, August 24-31, 1988, Buenos Aires, Argentina 183126, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    15. Dean A. DeRosa, 1996. "Regionalism and the Bias Against Agriculture in Less Developed Countries," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 19(Supplemen), pages 45-66, November.
    16. El Benni, Nadja & Irek, Judith & Finger, Robert & Mack, Gabriele & Ammann, Jeanine, 2024. "Citizens’ perceptions of agricultural policy goals—evidence from Switzerland," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 125(C).
    17. repec:ags:aaea22:335818 is not listed on IDEAS
    18. Kym Anderson, 2023. "Agriculture's globalization: Endowments, technologies, tastes and policies," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(4), pages 1314-1352, September.
    19. von Braun, Joachim, 2023. "UN Food Systems Summit 2021 – What Role Science and Innovation in the Summit and in Countries’ Plans and Why?," Discussion Papers 330050, University of Bonn, Center for Development Research (ZEF).
    20. Roman Rudnicki & Łukasz Wiśniewski & Mirosław Biczkowski, 2021. "A Spatial Typography of Environmentally Friendly Common Agricultural Policy Support Relevant to European Green Deal Objectives," Land, MDPI, vol. 10(10), pages 1-19, October.
    21. Wiśniewski, Łukasz & Rudnicki, Roman & Chodkowska-Miszczuk, Justyna, 2021. "What non-natural factors are behind the underuse of EU CAP funds in areas with valuable habitats?," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 108(C).

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:eurcho:v:18:y:2019:i:1:p:34-39. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/eaaeeea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.