Overview - Reform of EU agriculture policy

This section examines what reform of EU agricultural policy would mean for developing countries. It investigates the impact of current EU agricultural policies on developing countries, and asks how proposed changes to EU farm support policy could lead to a more positive impact. Would reducing agricultural support to EU farmers have a positive impact on living standards and poverty alleviation in developing countries? How significant would this contribution be?

Funding for the CAP is currently in place under the existing EU financial perspective (medium-term budget agreement) until the end of 2013. The EU must agree a new financial perspective for the coming period until 2020. Agreeing the financial perspective is not just about money but also about determining the relative priority given to the different EU activities. In that context, the Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development Dacian Ciolos has organised a public consultation on the future of the CAP post-2013. The CAP Reform Process describes the process and the issues in the debate on shaping the CAP in the post-2013 period.

The broad channels whereby EU agricultural and food regulations affects developing countries are well known. However, evaluating the quantitative importance of these effects requires sophisticated economic modelling. Such modelling can help to identify which aspects of the CAP have the biggest impacts on developing countries? Are the effects more important for some commodities than for others? Which countries would be most affected by further reform? The Impact of EU Agricultural Protection on Developing Countries explores the empirical evidence on what CAP policy reform would mean for world market prices, production, trade and developing country welfare.

One clear finding is that not all developing countries will benefit from EU agricultural policy reform. Countries that have preferential trade agreements with the EU are one group of developing countries which could be made worse off. Preference Erosion examines the scale of the likely losses and the measures the EU has already put in place to provide compensation.

Three commodity case studies dealing with sugar, bananas and dairy policies provide more detailed insights into how CAP reform would impact on developing countries.