Common Agriculture Policy

The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) is the agricultural policy of the European Union. It implements a system of agricultural subsidies and other programmes. It was introduced in 1962 and has undergone several changes since then to reduce the cost (from 71% of the EU budget in 1984 to 39% in 2013) and to also consider rural development in its aims. It has been criticised on the grounds of its cost, and its environmental and humanitarian impacts.

The circumstance that led to the development of the CAP occurred in the late 1950s to late 1960s. At the time, there was no example of a successful agricultural integration in Europe. However, two main factors contributed to its creation of this policy. This includes the promise EEC made to France bargaining the integrated agriculture policy in favor of France’s part in ratifying the Treaty of Rome and due to a lack of substantial policy in agriculture beyond a few pre-existing legal stipulations that some considered, “weak, vague and highly underdeveloped.” Thus, leading to the creation of article 39 in a set of five social and economic objectives.9. As part of building a common market, tariffs on agricultural products would have to be removed. However, the political clout of farmers and the sensitivity of the issue made it take many years before the CAP was fully implemented.

The Treaty of Rome, signed in 1957, established the Common Market. It also defined the general objectives of a CAP. The principles of the CAP were set out at the Stresa Conference in July 1958. The creation of a common agricultural policy was proposed in 1960 by the European Commission, and the CAP mechanisms were adopted by the six founding Member States. In 1962, the CAP came into force.

The six member states individually strongly intervened in their agricultural sectors, in particular with regard to what was produced, maintaining prices for goods and how farming was organised. The intervention posed an obstacle to free trade in goods while the rules continued to differ from state to state since freedom of trade would interfere with the intervention policies. Some members, particularly France, and all farming professional organisations wanted to maintain strong state intervention in agriculture. That could not only be achieved unless policies were harmonised and transferred to the European Community level.

By 1962, three major principles had been established to guide the CAP: market unity, community preference and financial solidarity. Since then, the CAP has been a central element in the European institutional system.

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