Cap Between First and Second Pillars: Looking into EU Spending on Agriculture

In this paper we offer some reflections on the Cap reform process, starting from analysis of the objectives and the solidity of its two financial pillars. In the first part of the paper agricultural expenditure is re-classified on the basis of major Cap intervention typologies, showing how a process of de-specialisation and overlapping of measures between the two pillars is at work. In the second part various financial resource allocation criteria are analysed in the light of the weight attributed to different combinations of five macro-variables: direct payments, disadvantaged area allowances, agricultural area, environmental measures, sector modernisation measures. More in general, the paper sheds light on the necessity to review the two-pillar structure of the Cap and revise its objectives and tools in order to make it more sustainable and more equitable in the long run.