After protracted negotiations, the EC Ministers of Agriculture agreed on a reform of the Common Agricultural Policy on July 1st. Will this reform solve the fundamental problems plaguing the common agricultural market? Is it compatible with the GATT?

The following analysis of the 1992/93 crisis of the European Monetary System finds that the unfolding of the single market dynamics will make European Monetary Union a difficult stage to achieve. Further monetary integration is only feasible if full employment and sustained growth are achieved...

Before the European summit in February 1988, EC agricultural policy was being criticized by almost all those affected. Farmers complained about low incomes and the lack of prospects, consumers and taxpayers about the high cost of agricultural support, politicians about spending commitments that...

The process of EU integration has intensified in the 1980s and early 1990s. The desire of a number of central and eastern European countries to join the EU is often seen as a threat to the continuation of this process. How wide should the radius of EU enlargement be? Which forms of integration...

Farming worldwide and national agricultural policies are in a profound crisis. Farmers everywhere are complaining about inadequate incomes. A large proportion of farms are threatened on both sides of the Atlantic, in the EC no less than in the USA. This situation has coincided with a period of...

The recent announcement of the French Government's decision to support the French agriculture this spring by direct income transfers to the tune of ffr 4.6 bn brings home the fact that some national governments need national autonomy in agricultural policy. Regrettably it seems to foreshadow an...

Much criticism notwithstanding, the essentials of the common agricultural policy have up to now scarcely been changed. What kind of basic changes would have to be introduced for a new agricultural policy to become also politically acceptable? The following article suggests alternatives to the...

Joint decisions each year on agricultural prices by the Council of Ministers of Agriculture are a requisite of the European Community's Common Agricultural Policy. It is however more and more difficult to reach joint decisions on these prices. Divergencies of national aims and economic starting...

Direct payments were originally justified as a mechanism to compensate farmers for the income loss incurred due to reduced intervention prices. However, this rationale is not valid any more, and a new justification for basic income support by granting basic decoupled direct payments has been...