Previous CAP reforms
5. While some have criticised the Vision document
for underplaying the extent of the recent reforms of the CAP,[3]
the HM Treasury / Defra report does acknowledge the progress that
has been made. The report notes that the MacSharry reform of 1992
focused on making direct payments to farmers to compensate them
for reductions in market price support.[4]
It states that "these compensatory payments are still being
made today—around €18 billion a year of direct payments
date back to these first reforms".[5]
6. The process of shifting support from production
to farmers was continued with the Agenda 2000 reforms, initiated
in 1999. The next major step was taken in 2003 when the Fischler
reforms aimed to 'decouple' direct payments from the production
activity.[6] This reduced
the 'production for subsidy' link of the payments, and made receipt
dependent on meeting minimum standards of good agricultural and
environmental condition—the so-called 'cross-compliance'
conditions. The centrepiece of the 2003 reforms was the 'Single
Payments Scheme' (SPS), aimed at simplifying all the disparate
product-specific area and headage payments into one single payment
per farm.
7. The same principle of decoupling payments from
production was employed in the 2004 reforms of the 'Mediterranean'
products in order to change the support arrangements for olive
oil, cotton, tobacco and hops and later with the 2005 reform of
the sugar regime.
Previous parliamentary scrutiny
8. The successive reforms of the CAP, described above,
have been the subject of scrutiny by the EFRA Committee, our predecessor
committee and committees in the House of Lords. In 2002, our predecessor
committee published a report on "The Future of UK Agriculture
in a Changing World".[7]
In January 2003, we looked at "The Mid-Term Review of the
Common Agricultural Policy".[8]
This was followed in 2004 by an inquiry into the "Implementation
of CAP Reform in the UK", which focused on the options available
to Defra in applying the CAP reform agreed in June 2003.[9]
We have also looked on two occasions at the implications of "Reform
of the EU Sugar Regime", first publishing a report in 2004,
and then following that up with another in November 2005.[10]
The House of Lords European Union Committee also published a timely
report on "The Future Financing of the Common Agricultural
Policy" in June 2005, just prior to a meeting of EU heads
of state which failed in its attempt to agree a budget deal owing,
in part, to a stalemate over negotiations on the future of the
CAP.[11]
3 See, for example, Ev 212 [Sir Don Curry] Back
4
The 1992 CAP reform was named after the EU Agriculture Commissioner
at the time, Ray MacSharry. Back
5
HM Treasury and Defra, A Vision for the Common Agricultural
Policy, December 2005, para 2.3 Back
6
The 2003 CAP reform, as with the 1992 reform, is often referred
to by the name of the EU Agriculture Commissioner at that time,
who was Dr Franz Fischler. Back
7
Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee, Ninth Report of
Session 2001-02, The Future of UK Agriculture in a Changing
World, HC 550 Back
8
Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee, Third Report of
Session 2002-03, The Mid-Term Review of the Common Agricultural
Policy, HC 151 Back
9
Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee, Seventh Report
of Session 2003-04, Implementation of CAP Reform in the UK,
HC 226 Back
10
Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee, Twelfth Report
of Session 2003-04, Reform of the Sugar Regime, HC 550;
Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee, Second Report of
Session 2005-06, Reform of the EU Sugar Regime, HC 585 Back
11
House of Lords, The Future Financing of the Common Agricultural
Policy, Second Report of the Select Committee on European
Union, Session 2005-06, HL Paper 7 Back
