CAP Reform Options: A Challenge for Analysis and Synthesis

The European Union’s Common Agricultural Policy is continually evolving. The growing debate about the future of the EU Budget post 2013 raises major questions about the future of the CAP. A formal Communication on the future of the Common Agriculture Policy (CAP) after 2013 is due to be published by the Commission in the summer/early autumn of this year – in order to launch a full public debate on the issues, and as a part of the Budget Review of 2011. Formal legislative proposals on the post-2013 CAP will then follow in mid-2011 – together with Commission proposals for the post-2013 Financial Perspectives.  It is, therefore, appropriate to review the discussions of further reforms, and also to consider our professional capacity to provide robust analysis of potential futures. The debate on the future CAP is of more than an agricultural interest as it affects, inter alia, the environment, climate change, food quality and security and rural communities and their development. Numerous views have already been expressed on the future of the CAP. However there is very limited synthesis of the options and principles underlying their evolutionary fitness – that is, the extent to which suggestions correspond to the socio-economic environment and political climate upon which the future persistence of the CAP depends. This paper synthesises present views on the future of CAP, and outlines a possible conceptual framework for future research and analyses in the field.