The October 2011 Legislative Proposals for CAP Reform: A French Point of View

This paper proposes an assessment of the October 2011 legislative proposals for CAP reform. The assessment is essentially qualitative, illustrated by static simulations of income effects for French professional farms. It uses the French case to highlight the diverging opinions between stakeholders on these proposals and argue why they are a step in the right direction but a too timid step as crucial issues are not adequately addressed. Furthermore several key parameters of the reform remain unknown. We first summarise the main elements of the proposals presented by the European Commission. We then highlight the main points that are subject to debate on the basis of French stakeholder reactions (public authorities, farmers’ unions, food companies and non-governmental organisations).We finally propose an assessment of these proposals focusing more specifically on the following points: the redistribution of direct payments between countries and categories of farms; the flat rate model for allocating decoupled payments; the removal of production quotas and the implementation of new tools of market regulation; and the allocation of funds specifically dedicated to innovation and knowledge transfer.