Common Agricultural Policy Vasilisa Aleksandrova,1510

CAP The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) is one of the most controversial European Union policies. It initially sought to increase agricultural productivity in the EU and secure availability of food supplies during the Cold War. Its aims have now changed and instead it tries to protect agriculture throughout the EU by controlling prices and levels of production and by subsidising the rural lifestyle in order to safeguard the countryside.

History The CAP was created in 1957 under the Treaty of Rome and started operating in The first attempt to reform the CAP came in 1992 with the MacSharry Reforms; a further reform was brought forward in 2000, however neither made a significant difference to the level of subsidies paid to farmers. EU Farm Ministers agreed to further changes on 26 June 2003, which are being phased-in between 2005 and Since 2005 farmers are no longer subsidised, but instead receive a lump-sum called the Single Farm Payment (SFP) and are encouraged to produce in response to consumer demand. Instead of payments being made to control how much farmers produce, they are paid for their role as guardians of the countryside.

How does the CAP work? The CAP is a form of protectionism designed to defend European producers from cheaper products outside the EU.

Facts and Figures The CAP budget for 2010 is 43.8bn (31% of the EU budget and 6.4% more than in 2009). For 2011 the CAP budget has been reduced by 3%. The cost to Britain is around £10 billion per year Nearly three-quarters of EU farmers have an income under £5,000 per year (although some only farm on a part-time basis) and incomes in the agricultural sector are just 50% of the average in other sectors. Farming sector employment fell by 25% during Under SFP, UK farmers receive around £230 per hectare as long as they meet standards on the environment, food quality and animal welfare.

Arguments

For The EU must look after its farmers because they help protect the countryside. The free market is unstable. Without intervention prices would fluctuate and farmers would not be able to respond to consumer demand.

Against Resources are best allocated through a free market: CAP makes food more expensive in the EU than it need be. The CAP increases poverty in poor countries by competing unfairly with local farmers. The CAP demands far too high a budgetary contribution to support only a small minority of EU businesses. Processing farmers' CAP payments is expensive (in 2009, the average cost of processing an SFP claim in the UK was £742, even for payouts as small as £5).

Латвия В Брюсселе 17 марта после очень напряженного обсуждения среди министров земледелия Европейского союза (ЕС), Латвия в голосовании не поддержала выводы Совета министров земледелия и рыболовства ЕС о периоде планирования Общей сельскохозяйственной политики (ОСП) с 2013 по 2020 год, так как они не обеспечивают четкую договоренность, что будущая система прямых платежей будет справедливой и честной для всех фермеров ЕС, сообщило Министерство земледелия (МЗ).