Why Europe deserves a better farm policy

The prospects for radical CAP reform look bleak. At the time of writing (December 2005) neither the arguments over the EU budget nor pressure from major farm exporters at the world trade negotiations look likely to force the EU to reform. The resistance to change is too strong. The French-led coalition of countries defending the status quo is more united than the group that favours reform. In theory, EU ministers decide on agricultural issues by qualified majority voting. In practice, however, EU ministers are reluctant to put any country in a minority and consensus is the general rule.

Jack Thurston is a transatlantic fellow of the German Marshall Fund of the US, and a co-founder of www.farmsubsidy.org, the online database of EU farm subsidy recipients.