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European Union
European Commission, Directorate-General for Agriculture and Rural Development
Strategma Agency
and MAGARDICH HULIAN, AGRICULTURE AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT EXPERT AT THE EUROPEAN INSTITUTE FOUNDATION
present
CAP for Youths
History of CAP, part 1
The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) is one of the oldest policies of the European Community.
Upon the launching of CAP there were only six member-states:
Belgium, Germany, Italy, Luxemburg, the Netherlands and France.
The beginnings of the Common Agricultural Policy were set by the Treaty of Rome in 1957.
Its formation immediately followed the negotiations for the establishment of the European Economic Area
and aimed to save Europe from the serious damages incurred by World War II
upon both the population and the territories of the countries involved.
World War II destroyed the basic production processes in the founding-states
and the policy had the purpose to support farmers in their struggle
to produce sufficient amounts of affordable agricultural products,
which could help Europe avoid the impending post-war food crisis in the respective countries.
So the policy was launched for very humane reasons
and aimed to provide the population with the food supplies they needed in order to overcome the consequences of war.
CAP became effective in 1962.
In order to ensure producers that there was no risk for their means of living,
the Community committed to buying up agricultural surpluses.
In this way the European Agricultural Guidance and Guarantee Fund was established.
Special taxes on imported commodities were introduced
for the purpose of encouraging local production and making sure it was more profitable.
On the other hand, agricultural export to countries outside the Community was subsidized.
Thus the production of sufficient food supplies was guaranteed.
For a period the Common Agricultural Policy served the purposes for which it was established:
Europe started producing sufficient quantities of agricultural produce
and managed to meet the demand of foods on the internal market.
This prompted the reviewing of the policy
and the launching of its first major reforms at the beginning of the 1980's and the 1990's
in view of the new challenges faced by Europe.
The European Economic Community when the so-called product surpluses started to occur.
The formation of the so-called butter mountains, and milk and wine lakes
made the EEC decide on reforming the policy in terms of limiting the support for farmers
on the basis of the amounts of agricultural produce provided by them
and placing the emphasis on the fairer distribution of the funding instead, in keeping with the contemporary needs.
The problem was those surpluses brought about serious economic crashes:
drops of prices that prompted the activation of one of the market mechanisms,
which is partially being applied at present too, for the purpose of topping up price levels in the farmers' interest.
In 1992 a new emphasis in CAP was introduced on organic agriculture.
One of the reasons behind it is the fact that agriculture happens to be among the major environmental polluters.
In order to prevent its negative impact,
the European Union started to apply policies encouraging farmers to protect the environment.
So one of the main priorities bound to serve as an indicator of the extent
to which farmers are keeping the commitments made by them concerns the provision of public benefits.
These benefits are not necessarily apparent.
Some of us might not realize what the implications are, but these are the benefits related to environmental protection.
Clean soils, clean water, clean forests and so on, from which, as a matter of fact, each and every one of us benefits.
In 1999 Agenda 2000 of new CAP reforms was launched.
The programme stimulates improvement in the competitiveness of European farmers,
facilitated the reduction of price protectionism and establishes stricter quality requirements.