Agricultural policy

Abstract

The Common Agricultural Policy is not easily contained within a single chapter. No brief treatment can do justice to its complexity. It is a policy for European agriculture, influencing the output and profitability of a diverse and populous industry. It is a building block for European integration, and hence a manifestation of common decision-taking among a group of sovereign states. It contains the Community’s trade policy for temperate-zone agricultural products, and hence is part of the external face of the EEC. It accounts for a large part of the common budget, and thus represents the only significant way that the Community effects large-scale financial transfers at the European level. It is a food policy, influencing the wholesale price of staple products. It has elements of regional policy, of social policy, and of employment policy. Such a policy can only be tied down by making the conscious choice to emphasise one aspect and resolutely avoid the temptation to follow all the hares that are raised in the process.