An Inside View of the Cap Reform Process : Explaining the Macsharry, Agenda 2000, and Fischler Reforms

An Inside View of the CAP Reform Process is about EU decision-making, in particular for the EU's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). From its formation in the 1960s through to 1992 the CAP was almost immune to change; but from 1992 a series of major reforms took place. Many authors have asked why and how this change came about, including academics writing from political economy and political science traditions, and EU officials themselves. With the benefit of Arlindo Cunha's intimate insider's knowledge, this book delves into the mysteries of the policy making process by assessing the MacSharry, Agenda 2000, and Fischler reforms, explaining how, and why, CAP reform became part of the political agenda, and the decisions that were taken. It focuses in particular on the role of the Commission and the Commissioner for Agriculture, the Council of Ministers and its Presidency, and the European Parliament. Drawing upon the economics and political science literatures as appropriate, the book adopts a heuristic political economy approach.

The MacSharry reform was much influenced by the Uruguay Round of GATT negotiations, and the 2003 Fischler reform by the Doha Round of WTO negotiations. A Delphi survey of key decision-makers, assessing their perception of the drivers of policy reform, and an analysis of subsequent CAP reform, including the Health Check in 2008 and preparations for the post-2013 CAP review, round-off the discussion. The former EU Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development, Franz Fischler, contributes a Foreword.

Arlindo Cunha is Professor of European Economy at Portuguese Catholic University, Porto. He worked as an economist and director at the Northern Portugal Regional Development Board (1976-86), and spent most of his life implementing the CAP and negotiating its reforms: was Minister of State at the Ministry of Agriculture (1986-90), Minister for Agriculture (1990-94) and Member of the European Parliament (1994-2003). In 2003-2004 Cunha became President of Northern Portugal Regional Development Board and Minister of Environment, Cities, Regional Development and Land Planning (2004).

Alan Swinbank is Emeritus Professor of Agricultural Economics at the University of Reading, where he had been since 1977. In the mid-1970s he spent four years as a junior administrator in the Directorate-General for Agriculture in the Commission of the European Communities. His research and teaching focussed on the food and farm policies of the EU, and on the WTO (World Trade Organization) process of agri-food trade liberalisation. In recent years Swinbank has published in the European Review of Agricultural Economics, Canadian Journal of Agricultural Economics, Food Policy, Journal of Common Market Studies, Journal of World Trade, The World Economy, and others, and co-authored (with Carsten Daugbjerg) Ideas, Institutions and Trade (OUP 2009).