Discussion of Plans to Reform the Common Agricultural Policy

Just three years after the most recent reform which was designed to pave the way up to 2006 including the EU's eastern enlargement, agricultural commissioner Fischler is proposing new changes, some of them of a drastic nature, of the EU's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). At the centre of the issue is the change in direct payments which are a substantial factor for farming in the EU. Acreage premiums and premiums for lifestock for land and animals are to be changed into a single income payment which is linked to the farming operation and decoupled from production. In addition, all direct payments are to be gradually cut by altogether 20 percent and limited to € 300,000 per farm. The EU funds saved by "dynamic modulation" and "capping" are then to be used to finance rural development.