what is the cap?

The CAP (Common Agriculture Policy) was created in 1958 to increase the productivity of European agriculture in order to provide food security for Europe. Thanks largely to the success of this policy, by the 1970's Europe was producing at least the amount it consumed in the most important agrarian products. Although the supply of food had thus been secured, and the main aim of the CAP achieved, the policy of the CAP underwent few changes. Despite several reform steps since the 1990's, the main aim of the CAP remains "to increase agricultural productivity by promoting technical progress […] and the optimum utilisation of the factors of production, in particular labour" [1].

The CAP system has failed to adapt to the new needs of agriculture in Europe. Productivity alone remains its axiom. New aims of the CAP should be included in a new Treaty: Sustainability, Quality and Local Diversity.

The Commissioner for Agriculture, Mr Franz Fischler, released a reform plan of the CAP on 22 january 2003. See FoE Europe's reaction in our media centre

[1] Article 33 (ex-Art. 39) of the EC-Treaty.