Assessment and Alternative Proposals on European Structural Policies: Why It Is Right to Support both the Common Agricultural Policy and Research and Innovation Policy

Abstract

The British Prime Minister Tony Blair has recently put in the centre of the debate on European economic policy the question of the place of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) which would represent a too important share of the European budget while, at the same time, almost no support would be given to the research and innovation policy. It would be a policy of the past incapable to face the main issues of the future. Agriculture policy might be renationalised to devote most of the European Union (EU) budget to the policy more turned towards research and innovation. The debate is welcomed but the British position is too simplistic.

Structural policies are not reduced to CAP and innovation policy. Regional policy is a matter of concern, and also are competition policy which plays a dominant role, industrial policy which is almost inexistent at the European level and trade policy which has been at the origin of the European construction but is now inscribed in the WTO framework. A critical assessment of the policies followed in these fields at the European level since the 1980s will be made in Section 2. Alternatives proposals will follow in Section 3, showing how it is possible and necessary to conciliate CAP and innovation policy with other structural interventions. The proposed measures make up a coherent programme.