Briefing paper - Nov 21th 2008

The CAP health check agreement reached by the Council of European Ministers of Agriculture on November 20th 2008 shows the face of a Europe without a real project for agriculture and rural areas. If this minimalist compromise solves intergovernmental impasses formerly considered insoluble, such as milk quotas or shifting money, it shows major sectoral rigidities that prevent Europe from building a vision for its common agricultural policy in the future.

This briefing paper describe the three major issues that have regularly shaken the debate on the CAP health check among member states : market regulation, direct payments and modulation. Beyond these thematical issues, it explain the future challenges :

- Beyond the health check : reshaping the CAP on renewed objectives

- Markets are not efficient against price volatility. Their organization are!

- Dairy sector: the improvement of a more flexible quota system is an alternative to their
abolition by 2015

- What the CAP could do to reorient farm systems towards sustainability

- Reshaping the CAP pillars architecture

Position paper - February 2008

The French organisations signing this document wish to examine and comment on the Commission’s “health check” in greater depth, and to put forward approaches for improvements that would anticipate on foreseeable trends. The challenges that a European policy will be facing reach far beyond consultations with agricultural and food industry interests alone, for they encompass the whole gamut of social demands and issues concerning food, the environment, climate change and rural development.

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