European Parliament

In the past, the European Parliament (EP) could give its opinion on the CAP but its consent was not needed to enact CAP legislation. Therefore, the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development was unimportant and primarily attracted Members of European Parliament (MEPs) who were close to farm interests. The Committee passed resolutions that tended to be incoherent, but on the whole supportive of the old-style CAP, with strong income support for farmers.

Under the Lisbon Treaty, the Council of Ministers and the EP will have to agree on new CAP legislation. The fact that the new CAP will be negotiated in the context of the next long-term EU budget, on which consent by the EP is required, also strengthens the EP. During the passage of the last long-term EU budget in 2005, the EP was forced to largely accept the budget draft previously agreed by the Council of Ministers. This time, the EP is set to make its voice heard and to play a decisive role throughout the budget negotiations.

The two main groups in the EP – the conservative EPP and the Socialists – only support moderate change. The liberal ALDE group is more reform-oriented, but pays limited attention to the CAP. The Greens strongly endorse drastic changes that would improve the environmental performance of the CAP, but are skeptical of market orientation and structural change.

The members of the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development tend to be much closer to farm interests than the average MEP. This explains the dismal first own-initiative report by the European Parliament on the post-2013 CAP, published in June 2010. It is therefore desirable to engage other MEPs with CAP reform so as to mitigate the influence of the Committee. In particular, members of the committees on the budget, the environment, development, and industry, research and energy can be expected to actively endorse CAP reform.

The EP assumes new responsibilities under the Lisbon Treaty. This not only means additional rights in European policy-making but also an enhanced obligation to promote the European public interest. The EP as a whole, and its leading figures, should thus ensure that its new powers in agriculture are exercised responsibly and are not subjected to narrow national interests or dictated by farm lobbies. Reform promoters should remind the EP of the trust European citizens placed in its hands with the Lisbon Treaty.