Direct payments are the most important expenditure of the Common Agricultural Policy. They are mostly in the form of decoupled direct payments which are intended to be allocatively neutral. Increasing volumes of such transfers imply that distributive aspects of CAP expenditures become more...

After an extended process of reform the European Union has introduced direct payments to farmers which are decoupled from production decisions as a central element of its Common Agricultural Policy. They are also referred to as Single Farm Payments. In this paper we analyze the production and...

The European Union's Council Regulation (EC) No 1698/2005 on support for rural development by the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development has introduced promising changes in rewarding farmers by the implementation of conservation auctions and granting farmers' transaction costs. The...

Die europäische Agrarpolitik führt zu schwerwiegenden Effizienzverlusten und hat Verteilungswirkungen, die gesamtwirtschaftlich kaum zu rechtfertigen sind. Anlaß für neuerliche Reformvorschläge der Kommission sind aber nicht diese Mängel der heutigen Politik, sondern die geplante...

This Policy Brief provides recommendations for agricultural policy reform in the EU. It argues, first, that all measures that distort market prices and production should be abolished. This includes production quotas, land set-asides, storage aids, export refunds, output payments, and area...

To attain fundamental reform of the post-2013 Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), a serious debate is needed in 2009/10 that prepares the decisions to be taken in 2011/12. The paper contributes to this debate, first, by arguing that the Single Farm Payment should not become the mainstay of the...

Die Mitgliedstaaten der EU gewährten 2010 Agrarbeihilfen in Höhe von 10,3 Mrd. Euro. Die derzeitige Rahmenregelung zur Kontrolle von Agrarbeihilfen läuft im Dezember 2013 aus und muss für 2014 bis 2020 neu gefasst werden. Dies bietet die Gelegenheit einer Neuausrichtung. Die Autoren...

Auf dem so genannten Krisengipfel der Staats- und Regierungschefs der EU-Mitgliedsländer im Sommer dieses Jahres kam starke Kritik vor allem vom britischen Premier Tony Blair an den "hohen Agrarsubventionen" auf. Auch wenn die Frage des EU-Agrarhaushaltes mittlerweile wieder in den Hintergrund...