THE PROS AND CONS OF THE EU COMMON AGRICULTURAL POLICY

Abstract

The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) of the European Union has generated a great deal of attention and controversy among research community, practitioners and the wider population. The aim of this study is to overview and to discuss the thoughts and comments on the CAP which have been addressed by both its proponents and its opponents in the scientific publications, political commentaries, official reports, pubic opinion surveys and social-media-based public forums. While on the one hand, recent public opinion poll (Eurobarometer 2016) indicated broad support among EU citizens for the CAP; on the other hand, other sources give some strong arguments in favour of reducing or even scrapping the CAP.
The CAP supporters (including European Commission itself) highlight, among others, the benefits of this policy (environmental; cultural; social vitality; food variety, quality and security; maintaining of rural employment, etc.) for all European citizens and not only for farmers, while CAP opponents stress its unfairness both to non-farmers (e.g. huge financial costs of its policy for taxpayers) and small farmers (large farmers benefit most), heavy administrative burden for farmers as well as the CAP’s destructing impact both on the EU states’ agriculture systems and developing countries’ agricultural markets. The CAP is basically the same for all EU member states but the EU countries differ considerably in terms of their rural development. According to some views, the CAP does not fit the Central and Eastern European countries. It represents a failure of the EU to adjust adequately from an exclusively Western European institution into a proper pan-European organization.

Keywords: benefits and costs, Common Agricultural Policy, European Union, opponents, supporters

Article DOI: http://doi.org/10.15544/RD.2017.158