The European Union's (EU) Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) has long been criticised for its damaging effects on developing countries, and developing country agriculture in particular. This paper reviews whether these criticisms are still valid in the light of the recent reforms of the CAP. It...

This paper explores whether, and how, the linkage with the multi-annual financial framework (MFF) negotiations affected the European Parliament's ability to influence the outcome of the common agricultural policy (CAP) reform negotiations which took place between 2011 and 2013. Specifically, the...

Greening the CAP: The Way Forward This paper reviews the debate up to June 2012 on the proposal to introduce a green payment in Pillar 1 of the Cap following the publication of the Commission’s legislative proposals for the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy post-2013 in October 2011. While...

Over the period 2005-2020, the Irish agri-food sector is confronted with three major policy changes: the decoupling of the single farm payment, the elimination of the dairy quota and potential multilateral trade liberalisation as part of an agreement in the Doha Development Round. This paper...

The EU Common Market Organisation has remained largely unchanged since its inception nearly 40 years ago. Reform has become inevitable due to changes to other sectors in the Common Agriculture Policy and pressure arising from international commitments. The current system provides sufficient...

This note reviews a recent volume edited by Swinnen on the “political economy” of the 2003 reform of the Common agricultural policy in discussing the prospects for further reform in the post-2013 period. The 2003 reform was a product of elite decision- making, and its success was due in part...

This paper discusses issues raised for OECD agricultural and agriculture-related policies by the policy coherence for development perspective. These issues are organised in a five-fold typology covering OECD domestic agricultural policy, agricultural trade policy, regulatory policies,...

Developing countries can produce sugar at much lower cost than in the EU, yet reform of the EU sugar policy will result in both winners and losers among them. This is because the EU is both an exporter and importer of sugar. Sugar policy reform will mean a reduction in EU sugar production,...

Conventional estimates of the economic contribution of agriculture and the agri-food sector suggest that the overall sector still accounts for around 10% of total employment, GNP and exports, even after the structural changes brought about by the Celtic Tiger economy in the 1990s. These...