COMMON AGRICULTURAL POLICY

Key Features of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP)

Key Features of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP)

Introduction

Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) is a system of support for agriculture within the European Union (EU). The CAP has as its aim a set of five objectives, which form part, of the Treaty of Rome through which the CAP constituted:

Increased agricultural productivity.

Increased incomes for agricultural producers.

Market stabilization.

Assurance of availability of food supplies.

Reasonable prices for consumers.

From this list, it is obvious that nutrition and health are not explicit objectives of the CAP. This is not to say, however, that the CAP has no influence on the nutritional quality of diets consumed in the Community, but any such effects are external to its aims. The CAP acts to achieve these objectives by means of a series of policies which support producers of agricultural products. These policies have major repercussions for the whole of the food system up to the consumer affecting food prices, availability and composition. There are virtually no foods which not affected by the CAP in some way (Hill, 1984, Pp. 18-19).

Discussion

Two treaties concluded in Rome on March 25, 1957, creating the European Economic Community (EEC), known as the Common Market and now called the European Union, and the European Atomic Energy Community (EURATOM). Established by France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Italy, and West Germany, the EEC's aim was to remove trade barriers among members; present a unified commercial policy toward non-members; coordinate transport systems and agricultural and economic policies; repeal any legislation restricting free competition; and ensure the easy flow of labour, capital, and entrepreneurship. The European Union operates chiefly through its commission, its council of ministers, the European Court of Justice, and the European Parliament—the last two also serving the European Coal and Steel Community and EURATOM (Baumol & Oates, 1988, Pp. 55-67). Besides several special committees, it also served by the European Investment Bank, the European Social Fund, and the European Development Fund. Plans for an EEC formulated during discussions held in Messina in 1955; it became operative on January 1, 1958. The United Kingdom, Denmark, and Ireland became members in 1973 (Auer, 2006, Pp. 215).

Positive and Negative Impacts

In recent years, a great deal of criticism has been levelled at the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). These criticisms have focused on such issues as its cost, the creation of 'Food Mountains' and detrimental effects upon the nutritional quality of diets (Curtis, 1991, Pp. 34-78).

The CAP supports the prices paid to farmers by setting minimum prices for the commodities they produce. Market prices maintained above those that would occur in a free market by a complex system of intervention buying and controls upon imports from outside the Community. Inevitably these producer prices passed on to consumers in the form of higher retail prices. The process by which this occurs is, however, highly complex because of the nature of the food chain which involves many stages through which foods highly processed before they ae eventually consumed (Swinbank & Tranter, 2004, ...