CAP: Bad times for a reform

A decisive date for European agriculture will be 2013. The 2003 compromise to freeze the level of agricultural spending will come to an end and new financial perspectives will be implemented. It could be the dawn of a new era for the Common Agricultural Policy, or CAP, still governed by principles decided by the Treaty of Rome in 1957. But this will depend on the coming European discussions about the future of the budget which should include a debate on EU's challenges and political priorities. The CAP "health check" debate initiated during the French presidency was not a major reform but an effort to streamline and to modernize the policy. It has also lead to a discussion regarding CAP goals after 2013. No clear perspective for the agricultural policy has been determined yet. Hopefully, coming discussions about the budget will be an opportunity to go further into this reflexion. But the current situation seems to compromise any deep debate about a new agricultural policy after 2013. Indeed, the basis of the next financial perspectives will be set up in the 2008-2009 budget revision. After that it will be too late to introduce radical changes in the EU budget. But the European Agenda forecasts European elections and a new Commission in 2009. Anyone knows that changes in political landscape make advanced discussions, such as big policy re form difficult to imagine. Moreover the current economic uncertainties do not even permit to forecast the evolution of the coming months. If Europeans postpone their 
choices of a future CAP to 2010-2011, the new reform will be influenced by short-term perspectives.